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Observations in Europe : principally in France and Great Britain (vol. 2)/ by John P. Durbin.

Observations in Europe : principally in France and Great Britain (vol. 2)/ by John P. Durbin. Durbin, John P. (John Price), 1800-1876. 400dpi TIFF G4 page images University of Kentucky, Electronic Information Access & Management Center Lexington, Kentucky 2002 b92-202-30752248v2 Electronic reproduction. 2002. (Beyond the shelf, serving historic Kentuckiana through virtual access (IMLS LG-03-02-0012-02) ; These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Observations in Europe : principally in France and Great Britain (vol. 2)/ by John P. Durbin. Durbin, John P. (John Price), 1800-1876. Harper, New York : 1844. 2 v. : ill. ; 20 cm. Coleman Microfilm. v. 1-2. Atlanta, Ga. : SOLINET, 1994. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. (SOLINET/ASERL Cooperative Microfilming Project (NEH PS-20317) ; SOL MN04500.01 KUK) Printing Master B92-202. IMLS This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. Great Britain Description and travel. France Description and travel. Europe Description and travel. This page in the original text is blank. OBSERVATIONS IN EUROPE, PRINCIPALLY IN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN. B1Y J OH N P. D U R B I N, D.D., PRESIDENT OF DICKINSON COLLEGE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. N E W-Y 0 R K: HARPER BROTHERS, 82 CL.IFF-STREET. 1 844. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by HARPER BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER I. LONDON. Embark at Ostend.-Approach to London.-The Thames.-Custosr-house. -Registry of Foreigners.-Mr. Randall's.-Mr. Everett.-House of Lords. -Brougham.-Wellington.-House of Commons.-Corruption.-O'Con- nell.-Protestant and Roman Catholic Politicians . . . Page 0 CHAPTER II. LONDON. The Tunnel.-How to know an American.-The Docks.-East India flocks. -West India Docks.-Commercial Docks.-London Docks. -Tobacco Warehouse.-Wine Vaults.-St. Catharine's Dock.-The Tower.-Horse Armory.-Raleigh's Cell.-The Regalia .18 CHAPTER III. LONDON. The Queen.-Royal Procession.-Appearance of Her Majesty.-Want of Enthusiasm.-Duke of Wellington.-Marshal Ney.-Prorogation of Par- liament.-Newspaper Accounts of the Court.-Prince Albert.-Fondness of the English for Gossip about the Royal Family . . . . 26 CHAPTER IV. LONDON. Blue-Coat School.-History of the School.-Boys at Dinner.-St. Paul's.- Ball.-Gallery.-Monuments.-Westminster Abbey--British Museum.- Mr. Home.-Number of Churches and Chapels in London.-Impressions of London.-Vastness.-Wealth.-Contrast with Pari . . . 33 CONTENTSd CHAPTER V. METHODISM IN ENGLAND. City Road Chapel-Introduction to the Conference.-Mode of doing Busi- ness.-The Legal Conference--Mode of stationing Preachers.-Church Edifices.-Worship.-Liturgy.-Style of Preaching.-Comparison of Eng- lish and American Methodism.-Efficiency of their Financial Measures.- Funds.-Missionary System.-Education.-Circulation of Books.-Com- parison.-Social Intercourse .Page 44 CHAPTER VI. METHODISM IN ENGLAND. Origin of Methodism.-Origin of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Amern- ca.-Question of the Sacraments.-Relation cf Methodism to the Estab- lishment.-Recent Modifications of that Relation.-Policy of the Establish- ment.-The Factory Bill.-Dr. Dixon's View of the Position of Methodism. -The Free Church of Scotland.-Political Importance of the Methodists. --Relation of Methodism to the Working Classes.-Attachment of the Methodists to the Establishment declining .78 CHAPTER VII. LONDON TO MANCHESTER. Outbreak in the Manufacturing Districts.-Rapid Spread of the Discontent. -Mobs.-Queen's Proclamation.-Departure from London.-London and Birmingham Railway.-Birmingham-Wretched Appearance of the Oper- atives.-Manchester.-Mob-law.-Chartists.-Their Proclamation.-The Workmen.-Messrs. Wood and Westhead's Factory.-Suppression of the Mob. . . . . . ill CHAPTER VIII. MANCHESTER TO NEWCASTLE. Sheffield Railway.-Wesleyan Conference.-Mr. Montgomery.-Hull.-Mr. Cookman.-Great Thornton-street Chapel.-Placards,-Worship.-York. -The Minster.-Law Courts.-Wigs.-Lord Dennian.-Cathedral Bells ringing for the Races.-The Clergy.-The Stage-coach.-Newcastle.-A Coai-mine.-The Miners.-" Honest John" . . . . . 127 CHAPTER IX. EDINBURGH. A lying Agent.-Annoyancte of Servants in England.-Bolting a Breakfast. -A dirty Village.-Alnwick.-Arrival at Edinburgh .-General A ppear- ance of the City-Origin of the New Town.-The Old Town.-Holyrood Palace.-The Barber in the Abbey.-Bones of the Kings.-Queen Mary's Apartments.-Rizzio's Closet ..140 it CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. EDINB URGH. Preparations for the Queen's Visit- A Disappointment. -The Queen gets 'up too early in the Morning. - Tragi-comedy.-Mortification in Edin- burgh.-The Queen refuses to attend the Presbyterian Church.-General Excitement caused by her Conduct .Page 146 CHAPTER XI. rHE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTrLAND . . 157 CHAPTER XII. THE HIGHLANDS. Excellent Roads.-Loch Leven.-Perth.-Pass of Killicrankie.-Dunkeld. -Sunday in Scotland.-Worship.-Grounds of the Duke of Atholl.-For- est Trees planted.-Immense Estates.-Labourers.-Taymouth Castle.- Return to Edinburgh.-Glasgow.-Growth of the City.-Manufactures.- Buildings.-Education.-Paisley. 166 CHAPTER XIII. THE LABOURING CLASSES IN GREAT BRITAIN. Coexistence of National Wealth and National Misery. - The Power and Wealth of England.-Wretchedness of the Mass.-Poverty of the Habita- tions and General Condition of the Labouring Classes.-Illustrations in Stockport, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow.-Lodging-houses.-Agricultural Districts.-Liverpool.-Moral Depravity.-Illustrations.-Ratio of Mortality in different Classes of Population.-Distress in Times of dull Trade.- Conclusions. . . . . 17 CHAPTER XIV. EVILS OF ENGLAND . . . 190 CHAPTER XV. IRELAND. Steamer to Belfast.-SheareTs.-Belfast.-Sunday.-Primitive Methodists. -Abundant Population.-Trade.-Lord Donegal.-Antrim.-Round Tow- ers.-Opinions as to their Design.-Jaunting Cars.-Cottages.-The Gi- out's Causeway 205 A 2 V Vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. IRELAND. Dunluce Castle. - Coleraine. - Lough Foyle.-Londonderry.-Strabane.- Newton-Stewart. - Omagh. - Leinster. - Wretchedness of Peasantry. - Beggars.-Drogheda.-Arrival at Dublin .Page 215 CHAPTER XVII. IRELAND. Dublin.-View from Carlisle Bridge.-Public Buildings.-Trinity College.- Phcenix Park.-Beggars.-Temperance Reform.-Sunday in Dublin.- Route to Limerick.-Peasantry.-Hovels.-The Pig.-Round Tower.- Rock of Dunamase.-Limerick.-The New Town.-A Walk through the Old Town.-Chapel.-Filth and Poverty.-The River Shannon . 219 CHAPTER XVIII. KILLARNEY. Killarney.-Victoria Hotel.-No Bedroom.-The Lakes.-Muckruss Abbey. -A Resting-place.-Peasant Girl.-The Upper Lake.-The Channel.- The Eagle's Nest.-Echoes.-Weir's Bridge.-Turk Lake.-The Lower Lake.-Ross Island.-Innisfallen Island.-Lord Kenmare.-Evils of Ire- land .227 CHAPTER XIX CORK. Stage-coach.-Want of Courtesy among Travellers.-Conversation.-Opin. ions of America.-Mrs. Trollope.-The Lee.-Cork.-Appearance of the City.-Fatber Mathew.-Taking the Pledge.-The Temperance Reform in Ireland.-Adhesion of the Catholics.-Conversation.-Effects of the Reform.-Question as to its Permanence.-Dependant on their Political Regeneration .. . . 234 CHAPTER XX. IRELAND. General Interest in the Irish Question.-Evils of Ireland.-Poverty.-Igno- rance.-Indolence.-Religious Feuds.-Romanism.-The Protestant Church Establishment. -Just Claims of Roman Catholics. -Large Es- tates. - Landlord and Tenant. - Absenteeism.- Slavery of the People.- ('Connell.-Repeal . . . ..245 CONTENTS. Vii CHAPTER XXI. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Prejudice in favour of the Church of England. - Awakening of the Public Mind in regard to her exclusive Claims. - Change of European Policy. - No more Religious Wars.-Policy of England favourable to Romanism.- The Church of England a Political Institution.-Patronage.-Simony.- Church Revenues. -Enormous Incomes of Bishops. -Inefficiency of the Church.-Statistics .Page 259 CHAPTER XXII. ROMAN CATHOLICISM. Increase of Romanism in England.-The Roman Catholic Church a Mis. sionary Church.-Statistics.-Historical Sketch. -Energy of the Papal Movements.-Elements of Power in the Roman Church.-Ceremonies at Prague-Naples-Rome.-Duty of Protestants .275 CHAPTER XXIII. ENGLAND AND AMERICA . . . 294 This page in the original text is blank. OBSERVATIONS IN EUROPE. CHAPTER I. LONDON. Embark at Ostend.-Approach to London.-The Thames.-Custom-house. -Registry of Foreigners.-Mr. Randall's.-Mr. Everett.-House of Lords. -Brougham.-Wellington.-House of Commons.-Corruption.-O'Con- nell.-Protestant and Roman Catholic Politicians. WE went by the railway from Brussels to Ostend, arriving after night, The tide was low, and the steam- er lay a few miles out at sea. A man, professing to be an agent for the vessel, pointed out a barge which was to convey us on board; we entered it, and were soon on our way to the vessel. When the lights of the steam- er appeared through the gloom, a surly boatman laid down his oar and demanded two francs from each pas- senger. A little fellow in company declared himself to be the ship's steward, and assured us that the boat was employed by the captain to bring off the passengers. The demand was refused; but the oarsmen not only persisted in it, but actually turned the head of the boat towards the shore, declaring that they would take us back if they were not paid. Here was a pretty quar- rel. The steamer was impatient-we could hear the loud hissing of her steam-and yet we were not near- ing her. Some of us would have paid ten passages sooner than be left behind; but the idea of being cheat- cd by force was very disagreeable, so we tried to ar. 10 THE TIHAME3, range matters between the contending parties. It was at last agreed that we should pay when we reached the ship if the captain did not, and the boat proceeded. I suppose the boatmen intended to detain our luggage if they were not paid ; but as soon as we touched the ship's side, the boat was grappled, we were called on to ascend, and some of the steamer's hands jumped into the boat and handed out our luggage. Hot words and strong blows passed; and, at last, I am sorry to say, the boatmen were cast off apparently empty-handed. One of the officers of the steamer, however, assured me that it was all right. I slept well in my berth on board the noble Bruges. At four o'clock next morning, after a rutt of about five hours, we awoke in the Thames. The banks were flat and uninteresting until we approached Gravesend, when they began to rise, and the country on each side swell- ed away in beautiful undulations. Above Gravesend, the scene rapidly changed. The river was thronged with shipping. The banks were lined with villages and towns. Presently piles of dingy buildings were seen in every direction, and a thousand tall chimneys rose into the air, vomiting forth their contributions to the dense canopy of smoke which expanded itself wider and higher in the direction of London. Scores of small steamers shot by us, loaded with men, women, and children escaping from the murky atmosphere and steaming streets of the great city. As we approached Blackwall, our progress was more and more impeded by the floating world of shipping. We took a pilot on board to guide us through the labyr- inth. After passing the London docks, we were fair- ly entangled in a throng of ships, barges, and steamers. It seemed impossible for our large vessel to extricate her- CUSTO5-11OU'SE. self. Five steamers were puffing around and pressing us, and the hurrying tide of the river was vexed by ten thousand keels. As I looked upon the burdened Thames, not wider than many of our nameless creeks at home, I thought of our mighty Mississippi as a more fitting chan- nel for so vast a commerce. The day may come when she shall bear as many ships upon her waters; they will have space and verge enough. The river became more and more gloomy from piles of ugly build- ings pressing down upon its slimy shores. Rude wood. en platforms often projected from these into the water. The movements of the masses in the river were per- formed in sullen silence, a striking contrast with the cheerful noise of the Continental harbours. Just as the dome of St. Paul's became visible, our vessel was forced lo make a retrograde movement to get out of the way of a large Scotch steamer. She passed, and we advanced again, slowly enough. The blackened pile of the Custom-house appeared, and di- rectly, also, the lofty Fire Monument. I noticed four low, round towers above the crowded roofs: they crowned the Tower of London. In a few minutes we reached St. Catharine's Dock, and the steamer came to. Our baggage was carried on shore, and underwent the ordinary custom-house investigation. For the first time on such an occasion, we paid the officer for his trouble, the fee being sixpence for each package. We were somewhat surprised on being required to call at the " Strangers' Office" in the Custom-house, that our names might be registered. I remarked to the officer that I had expected nothing of this kind in England. He replied that " he did not know what it was for; but it was an old statute of George 111. revived." By the regulation, not only are all strangers arriving in Lon- 11I 2 HOUSE OF LORDS. don required to report themselves, but masters of ves- sels coming into any port of the kingdom must deliver a list of their alien passengers at the Custom-house. A certificate of arrival was handed to Us, to be retained during our stay in the kingdom, and delivered to an officer of the customs at our departure. I had secured lodgings, before visiting England, at Mr. J. Randall's, No. 7 King-street, Cheapside. I found the character of Mr. R.'s house fully sustained during my stay in London, and take great pleasure in record- ing the kindness and care with which he and his esti- mable family contributed to our comfort and enjoyment. Shortly after our arrival in London we called on Mr. Everett, our minister at the court of St. James. We were received with great cordiality, and subsequently had frequent instances of the politeness and good feeling of our accomplished minister during our stay in the city. Having been provided, by his courtesy, with tickets for the houses of Parliament, we took an early opportunity to see " the assembled wisdom" of the British nation. I had the good fortune to hear Lord Brougham on my first visit to the House of Lords. When he rose to speak every noise in the hall was hushed. The crowd of spectators rose simultaneously to their feet and listen- ed to every word that he uttered with breathless at- tention, though the question was devoid of popular in- terest. It was the Dissenters' Marriage Bill. The ques- tion was concerning the validity of marriages perform- ed under certain conditions in Ireland by Presbyterian clergymen. The courts had decided against their valid- ity; and the question now discussed by the House ol Lords was, whether a declaratory act should be passed, affirming the legality of the marriages, or whether they should be mad- legal by a legislative act. It is easily 12 'rHE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. to be seen that this question involves the cardinal point now in controversy in England and America, of the apostolical succession of ministers. If these marriages had been performed by a Catholic priest, or by a cler- gyman of the Established Church, no question would have arisen. Lord Brougham took the ground that there could be no discussion as to the legality of the marriages, as that point had already been settled by the courts, and he therefore advocated an act to legalize them. I was sorry to find him maintain this position. Lord Brougham's dress and movements were careless, and even negligent. His air was that of a man who felt himself to be fully equal, if not superior, to those around him. While I admired the novus homo who stood thus proudly among the old nobility of England, I could not but think that plain Henry Brougham, lead- ilg the party of the people in the House of Commons, would have been a nobler sight. I had a good view of the Duke of Wellington. He stoops tunder the weight of years, and his physical pow- ers are gradually yielding. His countenance is strong- ly marked: firmness and decision are clearly written there. It is not strikingly intellectual, however ; there is no expanse of forehead; nor is there any light of genius in the eye. This last may have been different in his younger days. I heard it frequently remarked in London that there is a strong likeness between the duke and Bishop Soule. The duke certainly would have no reason to be mortified by the comparison. From the House of Lords we proceeded to the House of Commons. The lobby leading to the gallery was crowded, and a number of persons were waiting there for admission, as their names were called to supply the places of those who had retired. In three quarters of VOL. II.-B is 4HOUSE OF COMMONS. an hour we were summoned. There were four of us in company, and we had but two tickets, yet we passed the first inspector without difficulty. At the second door, however, the sturdy keeper said that two tickets, even though signed by the American minister, could not admit four persons. I was trying to devise some arith- metical process to solve the problem, when one of my young companions said that " Parliament was about to be dissolved, and that we lived three thousand miles off, and ought to be admitted." At the word we passed forward; and, whether the doorkeepers were moved by my friend's appeal, or startled at its impudence, they made no farther opposition. We were hardly reward- ed for our pains and for the time we spent in the House, as none of the distinguished members spoke. A report of an election committee on a case of corruption was talk- ed about, not debated. The amount of the matter was, that both parties had been guilty of the vilest corrup- tion according to the testimony, and the only question was their comparative guilt. One of the speakers re- marked, jocularly, " The only point in dispute is, which of us used the most money." I looked with more interest for Daniel O'Connell than for any other man in the House. A stout, well-built, plain-looking man, walking, up and down among the benches and talking familiarly with the members, was pointed out to me. It was the member for Clare. Here was the man who for years had controlled the British House of Commons. I say controlled, for, in reality, O'Connell held the balance of power between the two great political parties. For the present, his power in the House is at an end, and there is suppo- sed to be a temporary check to the influence of Catholi- cism in Parliament; but we have Mr. O'Connell's own 14 authority for saying that he expects yet to see high mass celebrated in Westminster Abbey. In a late speech at Freemasons' Hall, Mr. O'Connell said, " I am a mod- erate man, easily contented, and you will all think so when I inform you that all I want by coming here to- day is to hear high mass celebrated in Westminster Ab- bey (applause) : it has often been celebrated there be- fore; it was built for that purpose, and it would be a pity to disappoint it from returning to its original object. I do want to hear high mass in Westminster Abbey,, and I am deeply convinced, as far as man can judge from surrounding events, that the period is approaching fast when we shall have high mass performed in WVest- minster Abbey. It will be a glorious day for England when the anointed priests of God shall put on their sacred vestments at the old altar tomb, where they used to vest themselves, the tomb of Edward the Confessor, a man not more venerated for his love of religion and good practices, than for those foundations of British lib- erty which he instituted. I do hope to see that day, when the priests, descending from the stairs leading from that chapel, with their acolytes and thurifers, sending up incense as a token that they have returned to that altar which ought never to have been desecrated. Yes, I believe that happy period is returning, when England shall again be in the one fold, under the one Shepherd." In reference to a late Charge of the B.shop of Ox- ford, which favoured the Oxford Tracts, Mr. O'Connell remarked: "Let us remember that those men who are aiding us are not as yet altogether Catholics; we must remeni- ber that it is our duty, by love to our fellow-creatures and charitable affection, to increase our exertions, and take heed, by our constant endeavours, that the work O'CONNrILI. 15 of God may not be only half done, and that those who are now only half Catholics may not continue so, but become entire Catholics. Only two years ago the Rev. Mr. Sibthorp was in that position; but where is he now He is a minister of the Catholic Church. There is many an incipient Sibthorp-there is many a half- formed Sibthorp-who is now in his second birth, la- bouring for the truth, and who might be turned back if any repugnance were shown to him, but may yet be- come an entire Catholic if he is not forsaken. But there are passages in the Bishop of Oxford's charge which fill my mind with consolatioi: he acknowledges this great movement." The conduct of Mr. O'Connell is perfectly consistent with the fundamental principle, to which all others must be subservient in the mind of a true Romanist, viz., that there is no salvation out of the Roman Catholic Church. Every honest man holding this doctrine must feel him- self bound in conscience to use every effort in his power to extend the means of salvation-that is, to extend the influence of the Romish Church. Mere political ques- tions must be subordinate in the estimation of such a man. If he be in Parliament, his religious interests will overbear all others, and control his votes. On the other hand, the Protestant admits the possibility of sal- vation in any church, even the Catholic; and, there- fore, it cannot be possible that his conscience should be so constrained when he comes to give his vote. Polit- ical preferences sway him; and when they require it, his religious opinions and connexions yield. It is ob- vious that, on this principle, a Catholic faction in any constitutional government may, with skill and good management, exert a political influence out of all pro. portion to its numbers. Though Catholics form a very ORION NELL. 16 O'CONNELL. 17 small minority either in Great Britain or the United States, the balance of political power may easily be obtained by them, if they have but skilful leaders, train- ed to the arts of Democratic politics, and acute enough to trim well between the parties that divide the coun- try. Daniel O'Connell was courted and caressed by the late Whig ministry, although they hated both his person and his principles. He has always had a strong foundation for his power, however, in the truth and jus- tice of his claims for Ireland. The wrongs and evils of Ireland have made him what he is-the most re- markable demagogue of all time-the subject of Vic- toria, but the ruler of Irishmen, wielding, in the very face of the most powerful government on earth, an im- perium in imperio. I may allude to him again when I speak of Ireland. B 2 THE TUNNEL. CHAPTER II. LONDON. The Tunnel.-How to know an American.-The Docks.-East India Docks. -West India Docks.-Commercial Docks.-London Docks.-Tobacco Warehouse.-Wine Vaults.-St. Catharine's Dock.-The Tower.-Horse Armory.-Raleigh's Cell-The Regalia. THE TUNNEL. WE took passage at London Bridge, the lowest on the Thames, in a small steamer for the Tunnel, two miles lower down the river. As a mode of transit was much needed from Wapping to Rotherhithe, and a bridge could not be erected without too great an inter- ference with the immense commerce at this point, the Tunnel was proposed, and has been carried through. Various attempts of the sort had previously been made at different points on the river, without success; the present project, however, commenced in 1824, and car- ried on under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty, bids fair to be completely successful. Arriving at the opening of the shaft on the Wapping side, we descend- ed to the bottom, and the western half of this great subfluvial thoroughfare opened before us, like a long- drawn aisle vanishing to a point in the distance. The bed of the Tunnel descends a little from each shore to- wards the centre of the river, in order to preserve suf- ficient thickness of ground for safety under the deepest part of the bed. A range of heavy brickwork, pierced with arched spaces, runs through the whole length of the Tunnel, dividing it into two carriage-roads, with 18 footpaths on each side, and over each is a vaulted ceil- ing,, the inner edges of which rest on the partition wall. The sides, floor, and ceilings are of hard-burned brick, laid in Roman cement, and plastered, except the floors, with the same material. The carriage-ways are to be approached by circular ways, commencing about one hundred and fifty feet from the river on each side, and descending gently to the mouth of the Tunnel. Foot- passengers enter by winding stairs, in shafts nearer the river. The height, from the floor of each carriage-way to the ceiling, is sixteen feet four inches ; the width of each, at the base of the arch, thirteen feet nine inches, but less at the floor, the exterior side-walls dipping in- ward as they descend. Walking slowly through the brilliantly-illuminated archway, we found our progress stopped at last by a temporary bar placed across the way, designed to pre- vent visiters from approaching too near the workmen and engine. We expressed our regret at being thus arrested to a man standing behind the bar. "Thomas," said he to a little boy near him, "' we must let these American gen- tlemen pass." " And, pray, how do you know we are Americans " we exclaimed with one voice. " Oh," said he, " I knew that you were Americans as you came towards me: your walk showed it; I can tell an American by his walk as far as I can see him. And then, besides, when you spoke, the first word that you uttered was ' well."' So much for national traits. I believe no man in America would hesitate a moment to declare an Englishman's country in the same way. wNhen I returned to London the following year, the Tunnel was finished, except the carriage-ways, and millions of foot-passengers were passing under the river at a penny each. TUNNEL. 19 DOCKS. DOCKS. The greatest wonders of London, perhaps, are its docks. Without these vast receptacles the port would be incapable of accommodating the unnumbered vessels that carry on its immense commerce. To a stranger, coming up the river for the first time, they present the singular appearance of forests of masts springing up in the midst of the fields. The American reader, to con- ceive of them properly, must lay aside entirely his no- tion of a dock as occupying the space between two ad- jacent wharves, and thus forming a simple opening for the reception of vessels. The docks of London (and the same is true of those of Liverpool) are vast inland harbours, cased solidly in stone, and connected with the river by canals, which are closed by heavy gates as the tide ebbs, so that the shipping in the docks are always afloat, even at the lowest water. By following the ac- companying plan, the reader will get a distinct notion of the position of these great commercial docks. Coming up the river, the first that appear are the East India Docks, on the right bank of the Thames, at Blackwall. These were commenced in 1803, and open- ed in 1806. As the name implies, they belong to the East India Company. There are two docks, the im- port and export, of which the former covers eighteen acres of ground, and the latter nine; and, as the water is deeper at this point than higher up, they accommo- date vessels of heavier burden than any other docks on the river. It will be perceived from the plan that the docks communicate with the city by the Blackwall railway, which is a little over three miles in length. At the distance of half a mile from the East India Docks, the Thames bends suddenly southward, and, by 20 t z A V 41, t ,'t 4 M This page in the original text is blank. an extensive curve enclosing the Isle of Dogs, returns again almost into the line of its former course. Be- tween the points of flexure lie the West India Docks, which were the first and most extensive in the port, opened in 1802. The Export Dock is 870 yards long by 135 broad; the Import of the same length, and 166 broad; the south dock, used for the wood and timber trade, is 1183 yards long. Six hundred vessels may be accommodated here. The quays are built up in spa- cious warehouses. The whole area covered by the docks and warehouses is about 300 acres. It will be seen from the plan that the two principal docks communicate with the river by a basin and canal at each extremity. Passing round the circuit of the river. you see the Commercial Docks on the south side. The extent of these docks is even greater than that of the last de- scribed, but they are not on so expensive a scale, being intended chiefly as a harbour for vessels, and for the unloading of timber and such commodities as do not require warehouses. Ascending the river to Wapping, we arrive at the London Docks, on the north side of the Thames, which were the first commenced in the port, but not opened until 1805. At present they consist of three docks: the Western Dock, with a superficies of twenty-five acres; the Tobacco Dock, adjoining the first, covering over an acre; and the Eastern Dock, lately added. con- taining about seven acres. The eastern and western canals, opening into the river, are nearly a mile apart. Immense ranges of sheds are erected along the quays for the removal of cargoes; and behind them are lines of warehouses, solidly, and even splendidly built of hewn stone. The tobacco warehouse alone occupies nearly four acres of ground, and will store twenty-four 21 THP, DOCKS. thousand hogsheads of tobacco. But the most remark- able feature of this immense establishment are the ex- tensive vaults under the warehouses, principally devo- ted to the storage of wines and spirits. We had the curiosity to ramble through the largest of these, the east vault, appropriated exclusively to the storing of wines. The foreman, Mr. B. Randall, conducted us, with great civility, through its hundred subterranean streets. This single vault covers nine acres of ground, intersected by ranges of pillars, sometimes of masonry, but frequently of cast-iron, on which the arches of the ceiling rest. In the compartments thus formed the casks are piled up, generally three in height, leaving a space of three or four feet to the ceilings. Between the ranges a space of a few feet is left for convenience of access to the different pipes and casks. The main avenues, about eight feet wide, are laid with railways to facilitate labour, and strown with sawdust. The lamps are suspended along these avenues. The casks and ceilings are covered with a thick, whitish mould, almost in the form of a jelly, which is never removed, but even carefully protected. The height from floor to ceiling is about fifteen feet. As we walked through the dimly-lighted streets of the vault, each with a small lamp in his hand, we could hear the thundering noise of heavy hogsheads rolling over the warehouse floors above us. There is no idleness in any part of these penetralia of commerce. Any vessel, 'British or foreign, except those engaged in the East or West India trade, may enter the London Docks. The profits of the company arise from wharf- age and storage. Casks of wine sometimes remain for many years, paying storage all the time. The activity of business about the docks, and the immense amount 22 VAULTS. of merchandise in store at the time of our visit, struck us with amazement; and yet we were told that business was dull and the stocks small! The last of the series of docks are St. Cat harine's, sit- uated just below the Tower. They were opened in 1828, and lie near the Custom-house, the Bank, and the principal business points of the city. They consist of two docks and a basin, covering, perhaps, ten acres with water; the whole enclosure, warehouses included, containing nearly twenty-five acres. I believe this system of floating docks is little em- ployed in any country but England. Indeed, there are few others with sufficiently extensive commerce to need it. Works of this kind were first commenced in Liver- pool, but they were speedily adopted in London and several other commercial ports in the United Kingdom. It will be observed, that hardly forty years have elapsed since the erection of the first in the metropolis. TOWER. From the docks we proceeded to the Tower of Lon- don. What a crowd of recollections throng upon the mind at the very mention of the name! Those massive walls have immured royal prisoners, factious nobles, ambitious prelates, devoted martyrs, and incorruptible patriots. " That dark and gloomy pile," says Hallam, " affords associations, not quite so numerous and recent as the Bastile, yet enough to excite our hatred and hor- ror. But standing, as it does, in striking contrast to the fresh and flourishing constructions of modern wealth, the proofs and rewards of civil and religious liberty, it seems like a captive tyrant, reserved to grace the tri- umph of a victorious Republic." The great interest which a stranger feels in the Tower does not lie in its 23 THE TOWER. THE TOWER. architectural pretensions, for these are trifling; nor in the motley collection of odds and ends, of arms and an- tiquities, of paste and jewels which it contains, but in the memories of a Howard and an Essex, a Lady Jane Grey and a Raleigh, who found within its walls and dungeons their prisons or their death. The collections in the Tower are uninteresting to one who has seen the museums of the Continent. The Horse Armory contains twenty-one equestrian figures, in the armour of their respective periods, beginning with Edward I.,A.D. 1272, and closing with James II., 1685. The genuineness of the costumes, however, is questionable. Above the room in which they are dis- played is Queen Elizabeth's armory, in which Sir Wal- ter Raleigh was imprisoned. Opening into this apart- ment is a little closet, in which it is said that he was locked up nightly; a cold, gloomy cell, into which not a ray of light or breath of air could penetrate. The large room contains antiquities chiefly connected with Elizabeth and her times, especially relics of the Spanish Armada. At the upper end of the hall she is seen in her proper costume, mounted on a palfrey led by a page as fantastically dressed as herself. A large block was pointed out to us, with a heavy broadaxe hanging over it: it was the execution block. Noble heads had fallen there. The jewel-room is in a new building recently erect- ed. In it are displayed the regalia of England. They are kept in a large glass case, and consist of crowns, sceptres, salteellars, tankards, wine fountains, staves, sacramental service, globes, c., all of gold, set off with diamonds, the products of royal wealth for a succession of centuries. The richness and value of these articles are inconceivable to a stranger. He looks upon the 24 group as arrayed upon a pyramid of steps crowned with the present queen's coronet, resting upon a rich velvet cushion,with bewildered surprise, and it is some time before he can separate the articles and examine each by itself; when he does, he xvill look with wonder on the golden wine-fountain, three feet high and three in circumference; the imperial crown with its golden orb, six inches in diameter, edged with pearls and girded with precious stones; the golden baptismal font, in which the royal issue is christened, together with golden tankards of great size. The value of the whole within the case is said to be about ten millions of dollars. It is doubtful, however, whether all is gold or real dia- monds that glitter here. But the display tends to exas- perate the common people, millions of whom are suffer- ing for bread within the three kingdoms. At the very hour of our visit to the Tower, the starving population of the manufacturing districts were banding, in the depth of their despair, to break the laws of the land. VOL. II.-C 1EGALIA. 25 ROYAL PROCESSION. CHAPTER III. LONDON. The Queen.-Royal Procession.-Appearance of Her Majesty.-Want of Enthusiasm.-Duke of Wellington.-Marshal Ney.-Prorogation of Par- liament.-Newspaper Accounts of the Court.-Prince Albert.-Fondness of the English for Gossip about the Royal Family. TuE queen came from Windsor on Thursday, Au- gust 11, in order to prorogue Parliament the next day. I saw the passage of the cortege from Constitution Hill. After waiting an hour, I came near losing my patience, but at two o'clock, a low, suppressed murmur among the mass of people that thronged the way announced the royal approach. A squadron of horse swept rapidly by in advance of the royal carriage, which rolled by also so quickly that I had but a glimpse of her majesty. She was dressed in mourning for the Duke of Orleans. I had a better view, on the next day, of the royal passage from the Palace to the House. Arriving at the Horse Guards, I found a ragged fellow occupying a very eligible position, from which I easily dislodged him by the aid of a shilling. By one o'clock the carriages of the foreign ambassadors and the nobility began to pass; among them some of the most splendid equipages I had seen in Europe. Presently a state carriage pass- ed slowly, drawn by four horses with postillions, a guard on each side, and outriders, in liveries stiff with gold lace. In a few moments some one near me cried out, " Here come the beef-eaters." I found that this el- egant title belonged to the Yeomanry Guards, who marched slowly by, exhibiting their round, ruddy faces, 26 the product of roast beef and plum pudding. Next ap- peared a royal carriage, drawn by six horses, with a man in livery, on foot, by the side of each. Several carriages followed, with members and officers of the royal household. At last the royal carriage appeared. It was a heavy but splendid afflair, rich with gilding, and drawn by eight cream-coloured horses, with coach- man, postillion, and an attendant at the side of each horse. The corner panels were of glass, and the centre squares were down, so that we could see the persons witlhin perfectly well. The carriage passed within six feet of me, and as her majesty was on the same side, I saw her distinctly. Her face is good on the whole; a fair complexion-honest English red and white; a round and by no means elegant contour; and a benevo- lent, but not very intellectual expression. She can make no pretensions to beauty. She was evidently excited and anxious; her face flushed at intervals, and even her neck was suffused with a deep red. Prince Albert, the Earl of Jersey, and the Duchess of Buccleugh were with her in the carriage. There were no demonstrations of joy or even of good feeling among the queen's loyal subjects as she passed. Once or twice there was a feeble attempt to cheer, but it could not become general. There was much curios- ity-perhaps some bad feeling-but no enthusiasm whatever. Yet I could hardly repress my own emo- tions as I gazed upon the countenance of that youthful woman, and remembered that she was the representa- tive of that mighty sovereignty which rules one fourth of the population of the world, and holds a greater pro- portion of its moral power! Far different were the manifestations of popular feel- ing when the Duke of Wellington's carriage passed. 27 VICTORIA . WELLINGTON. When he was recognised by the crowd, they surround- ed his carriage and huzzaed enthusiastically. I looked upon the emaciated yet noble old man with mingled feelings; with respect and admiration for his brilliant talents, with esteem for his firm adherence to his prin- ciples, but with abhorrence for many of those principles which have led to the degradation and wretchedness of the people. One revolting association clings to my mind in connexion with the duke-the death of Marshal Ney. In the face of a solemn treaty, that noble soldier was judicially murdered after the capitulation of Paris in 1815. A word from the Duke of Wellington might have saved his life; but he chose not to utter it-nay, rather to utter a word that in effect was his death-war- rant. Many acts of the Duke of Wellington have given glory to his name; but this one dark spot is enough to throw a shade over them all. Vindictiveness, indeed, seems to be part of the duke's character. His reputa- tion will gain nothing, in the eyes of posterity, from the injudicious comparisons which his admirers are fond of drawing between himself and Napoleon. The blind- ness of national partiality may prevent Englishmen from seeing the absurdity of such a comparison, but in the eyes of all the world besides it is little less than ridic- ulous. I extract the following account of the mode of pro- rogation from one of the papers of the day. "At a quarter after two, her majesty entered the House, preceded by the heralds and pursuivants, and by the lord-chancellor, bearing the purse containing the great seal; the Duke of Buccleugh, bearing the crown on a velvet cushion; the Earl of Shaftesbury, bearing the cap of maintenance ; and the Duke of Wellington, with the sword of state. Her majesty, who was attired 28 THE PROROGATION. in her robes of state, and who wore a tiara of diamonds, was handed to the throne by Prince Albert, her train being borne by the Duchess of Buccleugh and Viscount- ess Jocelyn. Her majesty, on taking her seat on the throne, said, 'Your lordships will be seated,' upon which all present resumed their seats. Sir Augustus Clifford, the usher of the black rod, was then commanded to summon the Commons to the bar of the House, and shortly afterward the speaker, attended by a great number of the members, appeared at the bar." After the speaker's address to the queen, requesting her assent to various bills, the assent was given, and her majesty read the speech fiom the throne. At the conclusion of her speech, the lord-chancellor said, "It is her majesty's gracious will and pleasure that this Parliament should be prorogued to Thursday, the 6th day of October next: and the Parliament stands prorogued to Thursday, the 6th day of October next, accordingly. " Her majesty then left the House, preceded by her great officers of state, as on her entrance." Such is the ceremony of the prorogation, in which the monarch of England acts pantomime among the real rulers of the land, the members of Parliament. The newspapers always give full accounts of these exhibi- tions; and perhaps it is well, particularly in reference to the opening and closing of Parliament; but one can hardly help smiling at the accuracy with which they detail the daily movements, the walks, rides, excursions, uprisings, and downsittings of the royal family. Even the Watchman, a politico-religious paper, which, I be- lieve, is considered the organ of Wesleyan Methodism, prepares a weekly journal of these important matters for the edification of its readers in the manner following Q2 29 PRINCE ALBERT. " TImE COURT.-On Wednesday morning the queen and Prince Albert, accompanied by the Prince and Prin- cess of Saxe Cobourg, walked from Windsor Castle to Adelaide Lodge. In the afternoon Prince Albert drove her majesty out in a pony phaeton.... On Thursday, her majesty and the court returned to Buckingham Palace from Windsor.... The queen and Prince Al- bert walked to Adelaide Lodge on Saturday morning, and returned to the castle in a pony phaeton and pair.... Yesterday morning the queen and Prince Albert took their usual walking exercise. In the afternoon, her majesty, Prince Albert, and the Duke of Saxe Cobourg, and their suite, rode out in the park in pony carriages," c., c., c. My readers at home will be amused by these records of matters apparently so trivial; but they are anything but trivial or absurd in England. The practice is not without its use, so far as it assures the public of the health and welfare of persons in whom the whole com- munity is so deeply interested; but it is carried to a minuteness which evidently is only given to gratify a curiosity which must appear childish to strangers. Yet no secular paper could be sustained without it. I had a good opportunity of seeing Prince Albert, the " sire of England's hopes," at a later period, on an ex- cursion to Windsor Castle. A grand review of troops took place in the Park, in presence of the Archduke of Austria, then on a visit to the castle. I had the oppor- tunity of standing near the prince for a considerable time as he sat on horseback. He is of slender make, youthful, delicate, and even fragile in appearance. He certainly looked pale and sickly when I saw him. He wore thin mustaches, and a sprinkle of whiskers, strag- 30 gling down under the chin, somewhat relieved his deli- cate face. His countenance has a kind and gentle ex- pression, but is destitute of intellect or animation. He sat his horse badly. On the whole, his appearance is quite in keeping with his general reputation, which is that of a good-natured, unambitious young man, with no great abilities, not likely to do England any harm, and not capable of doing her any good, except as the obedient husband of her queen. I find the English people quite fond of gossiping about the royal family. One of the current stories is, that when Albert was first affianced to the queen, Lord Melbcurne asked him what amount of money he should need for his private purse. " Oh, I suppose about a hundred thousand francs," said the happy youth, in all the inexperience of German poverty. " Poh ! poh !" said the noble lord, " the husband of our queen must have fifty thousand pounds." So the queen, in the ful- ness of her affection, ordered it. But Parliament de- murred, and thought pound;30,000 enough. The story runs that the queen, being informed at breakfast of their disobedience to her wishes, in a sudden pet overthrew the table, breakfast and all ! Another story is told, which, if true, shows that Vic- toria, if she is in general amiable, can be a little obsti- nate at times, especially in regard to her spouse, for whomn she cherishes quite a laudable anxiety. It is said that she does not suffer him to leave her presence without her express permission, and without fixing the time for his return. The prince was engaged, on a certain occasion, to meet a musical association, of which Since the birth of a Prince of Wales and some princesses, Prince Albert has received an additional allowance, which, together with his appointments as field-Marshal, c., amounts to pound;50,000 a year-about 240,000. 31 VICTORIA. PRINCE ALBERT. he is a director, at the Hanover Rooms. The queen insisted on his staying at home; and when he persisted, there was quite a scene ! Notwithstanding her anger, however, he told Lord Melbourne, who interfered at the command of her majesty, that he was '; a director, and would go." And go he did. These little outbreaks, however, are dangerous; and the prince and his ad- visers are wise enough to avoid them, well understand- ing that even the royal husband ought to be a loyal subject. I have given these stories, not from any value in themselves, but to show that the loyalty of the English does not prevent their making free with their rulers. But they like to have the exclusive privilege of talking of these family matters. I remember once very inno- cently making a remark to an officer in the British army (a very amiable and intelligent man, who was my fellow-traveller in part of my tour in the East) which he supposed to be derogatory to his queen, and could not take very kindly. Some days after, at the dinner-table, the very same remark in the identical words which I had used, was made by Colonel -, a member of one of the oldest and noblest families in Britain, and it was heartily laughed at by the English gentlemen present. 32 BLUE-COAT SCHOOL. CHAPTER IV, LONDON. Blue-Coat School.-History of the School.-Boys at Dinner.-St. Paul's.- Ball.-Gallery.-Monuments.-Westminster Abbey.-British Museum.- Mr. Horne.-Number of Churches and Chapels in London.-Impressions of London.-Vastness.-Wealth.-Contrast with Paris. BLUE-COAT SCHOOL. I PAID a visit to that most celebrated of English charitable schools, Christ's Hospital, or the Blue-Coat School. Its name is familiarly known to multitudes from the fact that Coleridge and Charles Lamb were both educated there. Many of its scholars have be- come distinguished men; indeed, the system of select- ing the most promising boys for a university education can hardly fail to secure such a result. The charity was founded in 1552 by King Edward VI., and it is at present the richest in the kingdom, its annual income being over three hundred thousand dollars. It supports over thir- teen hundred boys, at an annual expense of about two hundred dollars each. The system of education is excellent for the accomplishment of the purposes at which it aims ; but whether its aims are the best possi- ble is more questionable. I give no detail of the affairs of the institution, as I did not make a personal examina- tion of the operations of the establishment, and especial- ly as a full account of this and similar institutions, both in Great Britain and on the Continent, are given in Dr. Bache's valuable and elaborate report on education in Europe. 33 It was a curious sight to see these boys assembled at dinner in the immense hall of the Hospital. They were dressed in an antique costume, said to be that of the common people in Edward VI.'s time; long blue coats, with standing collars and full skirts, reaching nearly to the ankle ; a band round the waist ; short knee-breeches; yellow hose; shoes and buckles. A steward superintended the meal, and the portions were distributed by nurses to certain of the boys who acted as waiters and supplied the rest. The trenchers, plates, spoons, mugs-everything, in short, except the knives and forks, were wooden. While the boys were eat- ing, the scene resembled a beehive in activity and buz; but quiet was suddenly obtained by three loud raps on the desk, and one of the larger boys returned thanks, the whole host responding with a prolonged amen, which made the vast hall resound. The little fellows looked happy and healthful. Long may Christ's Hos- pital stand-a glorious specimen of the noble charities of Old England. ST. PAUL'S. I spent a morning at St. Paul's Cathedral. So much has been said about this splendid temple, that I will say but little in detail. Second only to St. Peter's at Rome in magnitude, it is not behind that celebrated structure in external dignity, but greatly inferior in magnificence within. The effect of the exterior of St. Paul's, how- ever, is sadly broken by its miserable position, shut in on all hands by buildings, except from Ludgate Hill. This front has a double portico of twelve Corinthian columns below and eight Composite above, ranged in pairs, supporting a pediment, sculptured in bas-relief, with the Conversion of St. Paul. From the angles rise ST. PAUL'S. 34 This page in the original text is blank. -4 t 2:N This page in the original text is blank. two chaste and symmetrical towers, which harmonize well with the general features of the edifice, and height- en, by contrast, the effect of the lofty dome. The form of the building is that of a Greek cross; in extent it covers over two acres of ground. Over the space where the lines forming the cross intersect each other, springs the dome, the height of which, to the top of the cross that surmounts it, is four hundred and four feet. I ascended to the ball before exploring the area of the church below. The wind whistled around, and even through the copper orb, which vibrated very sensibly; I had expected a tremulous movement, but it was a real shaking; for at that height the wind blew a little hur- ricane, while it was scarcely felt in the labyrinth of streets and houses below. A gallery surrounds the dome at the base of the lantern, which affords, on a fine day, the best view that can be obtained of the world-metropolis. From it the crowds of men and women in the streets below appeared like the swarms of a disturbed anthill. From the cross I descended to the Whispering Gallery, so called because sounds ut- tered in low tones, close to the wall on one side, can be heard distinctly on the opposite, one hundred and fifty feet distant. This gallery affords a good view of the dome above and the area below. The effect of the vast concavity over head is truly grand. It was cov- ered, by Thornhill, with a series of paintings in fresco, illustrative of the life of St. Paul; but time and the moist climate have wrought havoc among them, and they are fast becoming unintelligible. The impression made by the body of the edifice, seen from the ground floor, is that of vastness, chiefly because it is not broken by numerous chapels, as in Catholic ca- thedrals. The stony nakedness of walls, pillars, and 5T. P.\ UL S. 35 arches makes a very chilling impression. In Westmin- ster Abbey this feeling is relieved by the multitude of monuments that crowd the place, and seem to fill it with life; but in St. Paul's they are too few to produce such an effect. The heroes and scholars sculptured here appear deserted and lonely. The monuments are principally those of military and naval heroes, recently erected at the public expense. Few of them struck me as being in good taste. I no- ticed but two churchmen, Bishops Heber and Middle- ton; and but two scholars, Dr. Johnson and Sir Will- iam Jones. There is a statue of Howard, by Bacon, in which the philanthropist is represented with the key of a prison in his right hand, and in his left a scroll, in- scribed, " Plan for the Improvement of Prisons and Hospitals." Among the military and naval monuments are those of Nelson, Collingwood, Cornwallis, and Earl Howe, besides several of minor characters, among which I noticed those of Generals Pakenham and Gibbs, who fell at New-Orleans, and of General Ross, who fell at Baltimore. Over the entrance to the choir is a simple slab, with a Latin inscription to the following effect: " Beneath lies Christopher Wren, the architect of this church and city, who lived more than ninety years, not for himself alone, but for the public. Read- er, do you seek his monument Look around !" Truly a fitting memorial. THE ABBEY. From St. Paul's I directed my course to Westminster Abbey; and by the kindness of our minister, Mr. Ever- ett, who wrote a note to Dr. Milman, asking permission for me to spend a few hours in the chapels, I spent the afternoon amid the memorials of the mighty dead. No 36 THE ADBEYv descendant of the Anglo-Saxon race can look upon the gray towers and time-worn walls of the Abbey, as he ap- proaches it, without feeling the most intense interest. But when he passes through the rude, unpainted oaken door which leads into the Poets' Corne, and finds himself amid the tombs of those that have contributed to make England and the world what they are, then it is that he becomes sensible of the power and majesty of the place. It does not impress you as the temple of God, but as the resting-place of the mighty dead. The crowd of worshippers is not there, but a little company of stran- gers from afar, gradually dispersing themselves amid the chapels, and along the aisles, and pausing before the monuments of the great. They linger long in the south- ern transept, where the poets are enshrined together. Thence they repair tc the eastern end of the Abbes, where are the royal chapels, in which are the tombs of the kings and queens of England. Some of these are much despoiled, partly by time, but chiefly by violence. Royal avarice plundered them of their sceptres and jewels, and Republican violence defaced them in wvan- tonness. But some are well preserved. The stranger will pause longest at the tombs of Alfred, of Edward the Confessor, of Henry the Seventh, of Elizabeth, and Mary of Scotland. The last three he will find in the magnificent chapel of Henry the Seventh, whose fretted ceiling, wholly wrought in stone, is not the least curious object of the place. From the Royal Chapels the visiter usually finds his way to the western portion of the building, where the long-drawn aisles and lofty nave, with their ranges of majestic columns, are literally incrusted with monu- ments. But only here and there does he find one bear- ing a name which illumines the pages of history or the Voi.. II.-D 37 THIE ABBEY'. B1RITISH MUSEUM. progress of science. The names of Pitt, Newton, and Wilberforce will arrest attention; but he hastens back to the Poets' Corner, that he may again breathe the in- spiration of the place ere he goes to mingle again with the busy crowds which sweep incessantly along the thoroughfares of the metropolis. Just before I left London I paid a visit to the British Museum, chiefly for the purpose of seeing the frieze and metopes which Lord Elgin caused to be taken down from the Parthenon at Athens, and transported to Eng- land. As I used to sit beneath the shades of that vener- able ruin on the Acropolis, and look up at the blank sur- faces which these inimitable sculptures once adorned, I felt the full force of Byron's " Curse of Minerva" upon the noble spoiler of the ancient remains of glorious Greece. "First on the head of him who did the deed My curse shall light, on him and all his seed: Without one spark of intellectual fire, Be all the sons as senseless as the sire: If one with wit the parent brood disgrace, Believe him bastard of a brighter race; Still with his hireling artists let him prate, And folly's praise repay for wisdom's hate; Long of their patron's gusto let them tell, Whose noblest, native gusto is-to sell : To sell and make-may shame record the day!- The State receiver of his pilfered prey." My friend and host, Mr. Randall, accompanied me to the Museum ; and through him I had the pleasure of an introduction to the 11ev. Thomas Ilartwell Horne, au- thor of the Introduction to the Bible, and who has lon, held an honourable office in the library of that institu- tion. He showed us through the library, and accom- Lord Elgin received from the British government pound;30,000 (150,000) for his collection of Grecian marbles. They are now arranged in five sa- loons in the British Museum. panied us to the Egyptian room, to point out the cele- brated Rosetta stone, which led to a knowledge of the hieroglyphics of Egypt-as it contained the same sub- ject written in the Greek, Egyptian, and hieroglyphic characters. During our conversation, the subject of Popery was mentioned, which led Mr. Horne to allude to Dr. Elli- ott's work on Roman Catholicism, and he said he had read it, and that it was the best and most effective work ever produced to meet the present state of the controversy. He seemed delighted to speak of it in the highest terms, remarking that he had called the at- tention of the Book-Room in London to it, and that it was now in course of republication by them. I men- tion this conversation with Mr. Horne on the subject of Dr. Elliot's volumes mainly to aid in their circulation, and partly as a proper tribute to the industry and learn- ing he has displayed in their composition. Mr. Homne was once a Wesleyan Methodist; but, not being gifted with the power of extempore eloquence, it seemed he had not much prospect of doing great good among them. He had already gone far in the prepar- ation of his " Introduction," and finally repaired to Ox- ford, took his degrees, and entered the Established Church, and has since been settled in a small parish in London. He is a genuine Christian man and minister, and much opposed to Puseyism. When to a friend I confessed my surprise that neither of the universities had conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, when all the world knew that he was worthy, the reply was, he had not risen in the regular way; and this, perhaps, was the cause. ME. HORNE, 139 PLACES OF WORSHIP. The number of religious edifices, including churches and chapels, is far greater in London than in Paris, though the accommodation for worshippers is far less extensive than in American cities. According to a table made from minute and detailed surveys, and published in the Congregational Mlagazine for December, 1838, the whole number of sittings in the city of Westminster in the Established, Wesleyan, and Dissenters' churches, was 60,787, for a population of 202,460.4- The number in the whole metropolis was 517,614, for a population of 1,434,868. And yet even these are not all occupied. The Rev. B. N., of London, remarked to me in conver- sation, that "if all the churches and chapels in the me- tropolis were filled up, a large proportion of the popu- lation would be without a place to worship in." " Why, then," said I, " do not the parishes erect more " " The number is increasing," he replied, " and yet those al- ready built are not well filled." I found this to be the case whenever I attended either church or chapel. It will be observed that the part of the metropolis which has the fewest sittings, as stated above, is the city of IWestlnin- ster, " the favoured abode of the royal family, the bish- ops, and nearly all the members of the Houses of Lords and Commons, with the choice of the gentry of the land, and possessing the advantage of a dean and chapter, who have large revenues." I had intended to give some details in regard to the morals of the metropolis, and collected materials for the purpose, but deem it best to omit them. If great cities can only exist under such conditions as have produced The number in Philadelphia, for about the same population, is, I think, over 140,000. 40 1N'TEMPERANCE. the demoralization of the European capitals. it is a se- rious question whether they are desirable in any coun- try. London is, perhaps, not worse than Paris, but in open, shameless profligacy there can be no comparison between the two cities. Swarms of lewd women cross your path in any of the principal streets, from ten at night until two in the morning. Their numbers may not be greater, in proportion to the population, than those of other large cities; but certainly they are more bold, reckless, and degraded than are to be met with in other capitals. Intemperance is still a crying sin of the British me- tropolis, as it is of the British nation. Nowhere else in the world, except, perhaps, in Russia, is it so univer- sally prevalent. We have read much of the magnitude and splendour of the gin palaces of London; but in re- gard to their destructive popularity the half has not been told. These are the resorts of the common peo- ple. The temperance movement has made but little impression upon the lower orders, and the better classes delight in their wine too much to think of tee-totalism. I should wrong the English, however, were I to say that it is the love of wine solely which keeps them aloof from the movement; many do not believe in its principles; many doubt its feasibility in practice; and many more are prejudiced against it fromn its great suc- cess in Ireland. To take the cause up vigorously now would be to follow Irish example; and the movement in Ireland is regarded by many in England as a semi- political and almost wholly Roman Catholic enterprise. The first impression of London is usually wonder at its immensity. I received this impression in its full force, as the reader will have already perceived, in D 2 41 IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON' coming up the Thames. Nor did it diminish in the course of my rambles through the great metropolis, subsequently. When the stranger first leaves the river, and plunges into the thronged stheets, he absolutely becomes dizzy in the whirl of busy life around him. Men sweep by him in masses; at times the way seems wedged with them: wagons, carts, omnibuses, hacks, and coaches block up the avenues, and make it quite an enterprise to cross them. Every day my amazement increased at the extent, the activity, the wealth of Lon- don. The impression was totally different from that of Paris. The French capital strikes you as the seat of human enjoyment. You find the art of life, so far as mere physical good is concerned, in perfection there. No wish need be ungratified. Your taste may be grat- ified with the finest music, the most fascinating specta- cles, the most splendid works of art in the world. You may eat and drink when and where you please; in half an hour, almost any delicacy that earth has produced or art invented is set before you. You may spend days and weeks in visiting her museums, her hospitals, her gardens, her cemeteries, her libraries, her palaces, and yet remain unsatisfied. In London everything is dif- ferent. Men are active, but it is in pursuit of wealth. In general they do not seem to enjoy life. The arts are cultivated to a small extent by a small class of society; the mass seem hardly to know that arts exist. No splendid collections are open, without fee or reward, to the public, or to you. You can purchase gratification, but of a lower order than in Paris, and at a higher price. Except a few lions-the Docks, the Tunnel, Westmin- ster Abbey, c.-nearly everything that the city has to show to a stranger can be seen as you ride along the streets. When you leave Paris, you have just be- 42 LONDON. 43 gun to enjoy it, and desire to return again; you leave London convinced, indeed, of its vastness and wealth, but tired of gazing at dingy buildings and thronged streets, and are satisfied without another visit. Such, at least, were my own impressions. Apart from pri- vate friendships and professional interests, I have no care to see London again. METHODISM. CHAPTER V. MIETHOD1SM IN ENGLAND. City Road Chapel.-Introduction to the Conference.-Mode of doing Busi- ness.-The Legal Conference.-Mode of stationing Preachers.-Church Edifices.-Worship-Liturgy.-Style of Preaching.-Comparison of Eng- lish and American Methodism.-Efficiency of their Financial Measures.- Funds.-Missionary System.-Education.--Circulation of Books.-Com- parison.-Social Intercourse. I WAS much gratified with my first introduction to Methodism in England. " Let us walk up to the City Road Chapel," said Mr. R.; "I wish to present you to the Conference this morning. It is now in session there." City Road Chapel, Mr. Wesley, and the first periods of Methodism had always been associated in my mind. As I passed up the thronged street, my eye was constantly throwing its glances forward to catch a glimpse of the building. A space opened on the left; it was a burial-ground, in which slept the author of the Pilgrim's Progress, and he whose sacred poetry is sung in all Protestant churches. Immediately opposite to it, on the right, a small space, enclosed with iron railings, opened far up from the street, and disclosed a dark- looking brick building, nearly square, and too low to be imposing, with a small portico at the door. It was the City Road Chapel. We entered through a side door, and immediately ascended the platform, on which were seated the president, secretary, fathers of the Confer- ence, the delegates of the Irish Conference, together with the venerable Bishop Soule, our representative, and his companion, Rev. T. B. Sargent, and some dis- 44 THt C0NFERENCt. tinguished foreign clergymen. Five hundred preachers were seated in the pews below, and scores of the junior preachers in the galleries. In a few minutes an occa- sion offered, and the Rev. Richard Reese presented me to the president, the Rev. Dr. Hannah, who rose as I advanced towards him, and shook me long and heartily by the hand, expressing on the part of the Conference, who had risen to their feet, the kindest congratulations. Ile then requested me to be seated. The English mode of presenting a stranger appears, unlike ours, to be an introduction to the president rather than to the Confer- ence. Their mode of doing business strikes us technical and parliamentary people strangely. Any member may send a resolution to the secretary, but it is not often that one is offered except by committees, occasionally by prominent members. When a resolution is read, any one may speak, and it often happens that half a dozen speak at a time. Indeed, it sometimes seems to be merely a free conversation, until, out of the apparent confusion, the penetrating mind of the president seizes the prevailing opinion and announces it as the sense of the body, and very rarely indeed is any objection offer- ed. In this way the decision of the president rests, doubtless, on the enlightened judgment and great expe- rience of the wiser and older brethren, rather than upon the weight of numbers, which might, perhaps, be upon the other side. It is a fixed custom with them to avoid, if possible, coming to a vote on any question. They have no by-laws to direct their action, but rely upon prescription, the wisdom of the fathers, and the acqui- It occasionally happens that there are loud cheers on the one side, and what might be called hisses, certainly strong marks of disapprobation, on the other. In regularity an(l decorum in transacting business ai Conference we certainly excel them. THE CONFERENCE. escence of the junior members. This gives experience great weight, and enables it to control new members, while the younger are taught to submit to the elder. The government of the Conference thus rests in persons rather than in officers, and is guided rather by usage than by written rules. This practice has come down from Mr. Wesley, who used to hold his conferences in the form of conversations with his principal preachers, by whose experience and observation he was assisted in forming his conclusions. A farther explanation of this singular mode of trans- actingy business is found in the existence of the Legal Conference of One Hundred as distinguished from the general body of ministers which constitutes the Confer- ence popularly and practically. Mr. Wesley, seeing that the body of preachers had no legal existence, and that in law there was no Conference, executed, some time before his death, under the advice of able counsel, a " Deed of Declaration," which he caused to be enroll- ed in the High Court of Chancery, declaring one hun- dred preachers, whom he named therein, and their suc- cessors as therein provided for, to be the Conference forever. All the powers which he himself had exer- - By a resolution of the Conference in 1814, three out of every four vacan. cies are filled by seniority, and the fourth by nomination, by ballot of the preachers in full connexion with the Legal Conference, and then the nomina- tion is rendered legal by a formal vote of the "Hundred." Thus it will be seen that the One Hundred do not, in fact, perpetuate their own body, but sat. isfy the law by formally admitting the three oldest and confirming the fourth, the nominee of the great body of preachers. In the same manner the nomi- nation of the president and secretary rests with the body of preachers, and their legal appointment is made by the Hundred, but they must be of the Hundred. By a resolution of Conference in 1792, the same person cannot be re-elected until after eight years, though the Deed of Declaration does not forbid his annual re-election. These generous resolutions show that the Conference desires to make all privileges common to the preachers, and is restrained only in a few instances by the Deed. 46 cised, as far as possible devolved by this deed upon the Legal Hundred. In the eye of the law, every resolu- tion and act of the Conference is taken as the resolution and act of the Hundred; the other members in connex- ion with the Conference, but not of the Hundred, having no positive legal right to sit in consultation or to vote at all. They sit by courtesy, and in pursuance of a special charge of Mr. Wesley left to the Conference as his dying request; and on the same ground they speak on all subjects and vote on matters not named in the "' Deed of Declaration," and hence not considered as the legal business of the Conference, but rather as incident- al. Prudence, therefore, requires that matters come to a vote as seldom as possible; for, strictly speaking, the vote must be confined to the Hundred. But the sense of the Conference being gathered by the president, en- tered on the minutes by the secretary, and then read publicly and subscribed by the officers, is taken to be the act of the Conference " without the aid of any other proof." I am not called upon to defend this peculiar organi- zation of the Wesleyan Conference. To the candid and intelligent it is sufficient to say that no legal exist- ence could be given to it without naming a fixed num- ber of persons and providing for their succession. Mr. Wesley could not name a number greater than was at the time in connexion with him. Ile therefore fixed the medium number, sufficient to ensure counsel and efficiency, yet not too large to transact business with expedition. He had to trust to their continued piety The members in full connexion, but not of the Legal Hundred, attend the Conference or not, as their several district meetings shall determine from year to year. Some are required to remain in their circuits to take care of the work. THE CONFERENCE- 47 MODE OF STAtIONING MINZISTERS. and fidelity that they would not exclude their brethren from any privilege which they enjoyed, and that they would only consider themselves as depositories of the precious trust which he was obliged to commit to some persons and their successors. Their conduct for more than fifty years since his death has proved that they are worthy the important trust. There is nothing more remarkable in English Meth- odism than the mode of stationing the preachers. By the rules of the Conference, the Quarterly Mleeting of each circuit may open a correspondence, after the March Quarterly Meeting, with any preacher, to ob- tain his consent to serve them the following year. If he agree, the Quarterly Meeting then sends a formal petition to the Stationing Committee, which meets a few days before Conference; and unless there be grave reasons against the arrangement which is made be- tween the preacher and Quarterly Conference, it is al- lowed to stand. But in these negotiations there are three general rules to be observed, or the arrangement will be set aside: 1. Regard must first be had to the ac- commodation of the " aged preachers." 2. The " mar- ried preachers" must be provided for, one " married preacher to 450 members. two to 900, and three to 1350." The junior preachers are make-weights to ad- just the fractions of 450 members, and fill up the chinks; and thus, by serving faithfully as sons in the Gospel, they grow gradually into respectability and strength, and become fathers in their turn. By this private ac- tion, which goes on for six months before the Station- ing Committee meets, the general stationing is accom- plished, and awaits only the concurrence of the com- mittee, and then the final sanction of Conference. This Stationing Committee is constituted in the fol- STATIONING POWER. lowing manner: The whole work is divided into dis- tricts; towards the close of the year the preachers in each district meet together, and appoint one of their number to be their representative for the preachers and people of the district. These representatives, together with one to represent the young men in the Theological Institution, and one to represent the missions, meet to- gether at the place of the ensuing Conference, about ten days before it sits, and constitute the " Stationing Committee," of which the President of the last Confer- ence is chairman, and the Secretary of Conference is secretary. The committee proceed to station the preachers, according to their judgment, after receiving all the information they can get. As soon as the list is prepared, the information is transmitted by each repre- sentative to the circuits and stations, so that the people may know who is proposed to serve them the following year. If they have any objection to make, they trans- mit it to the representative of their district, who lays it before the committee. The people and the preachers both communicate through their representative. With these aids the committee prepares a list of the appoint- ments, which is read in the Conference about ten days after its commencement, and the Conference proceeds to revise the list, during which each preacher may ob- ject to his appointment, or may express his desire to go elsewhere, and assign his reasons in either case; the people also may object by their representatives, and the whole is settled by the general sense of the Confer- ence. I was present in Conference during the revision of the appointments, in which great freedom of speech was used, and sometimes much personality, which ap- peared likely to produce irritation; but, upon inqui- ry, I learned that the irritation is inconsiderable, and VOL. I.-E 49 CHURCH EDIFICES. what there is soon passes away, and general satisfac- tion is attained. To me this system at first seemed im- practicable, yet the more I saw of it in England, the more I was convinced of its adaptation to their preach- ers and people; but it is entirely at variance with the theory and practice of Methodism among us. The momentary confusion and cross-firing in their conver- sations about the appointments seem to threaten an ex- plosion, but all quickly becomes quiet, and courtesy and good feeling reign." The sacred edifices used for public worship by the Methodists in England and Ireland are not called churches, but chapels, the word church being exclu- sively appropriated by the Establishment. The distinc- tion seems to have arisen from considering the houses of worship used by other denominations as simply preaching places, and not as edifices consecrated for the administration of the sacraments, the exclusive right to do which was and is claimed by the Episcopal cler- gy. The Methodist chapels in general are plain, ca- pacity and convenience being chiefly regarded in theic construction. Mr. Wesley's advice in this matter has influenced the connexion in almost every case. Yet the increase of general wealth, and occasional cases of great individual wealth, are gradually overcoming the controlling considerations of capacity and conveni- ence, and architectural taste is beginning to appear in some recently-erected chapels. The interior of City Road Chapel is neat; so, also, of Great Queen-street; I find, in Grindrod's Compendium of Methodism, just published in Lon- don, that violent remonstrances are often made to appointments, and much private acrimony is occasionally the consequence. He says, `There is often the appearance of much moral guilt involved in the remonstrances which are got up against good and faithful ministers" (p. 134, note). 50 CONGREGATIONS. but there is no taste displayed in either. The same is true of the principal chapels throughout the kingdom. But there is a new era commencing amnong the Wes- leyans in this respect. Mrs. Heald, if I recollect cor- rectly, erected a chapel at Bolton which I did not see, but which was spoken of in the public papers at the time as displaying taste and elegance. Mr. Garstang, of Manchester, has since erected a beautiful Gothic chapel in the vicinity of the town, which is an object of admiration. The society of Great Thornton-street, in Hull, have just completed a beautiful and classic chapel, an account of which may be found in my no- tice of a visit to that town. To these I may add the Centenary Chapel in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, the beautiful Grecian portico of which was in progress when I visited it in company with the Rev. Mr. Waugh. It is an ornament to the aristocratic square upon which it fronts. This good taste is displaying itself in the public institutions of the English Methodists, as the reader may see in the prints of the Theological Institu- tion at Richmond, and the Wesleyan Proprietary School at Sheffield. The congregations are not so crowded at their ordi- nary services as is commonly the case in our cities and towns; but they are generally more select, owing to the introduction of pews. In some of the chapels, as in Carver-street, Sheffield, the free seats are at the lower end of the chapel, and are benches rather than pews. A low partition separates the two classes of seats. The people enter more generally into the public service than with us. The whole congregation rise and seem to participate in the singing, and, kneeling, take part more generally in the public prayers. There is less careless- ness. and a pervading air of seriousness and strict pro- 51 priety. No singing is allowed after the sermon, and all remain kneeling for perhaps half a minute, in pro- found silence, after the benediction is pronounced. This is commendable. Upon the whole, they come nearer than we to perfect obedience to the apostle's injunc- tion, " Let all things be done decently and in order." In respect to this, we are now where perhaps they were forty years ago. The morning service of the Church of England is read in most of the chapels in London, and generally in the principal chapel in the chief towns, and in those chapels where a wealthy and intelligent family has the almost sole influence. But it is not in general use, nor are the mass of the people in favour of it. Perhaps the preach- ers are; certainly the older and more influential. It is not adapted to the conversion of sinners, but is well cal- culated to cherish piety where it already exists in an in- telligent mind. It gives dignity and respectability to worship, but does not alarm the conscience or quicken the multitude. It is a beautiful and edifying service, truly acceptable to God when devoutly performed, and might well occupy a place in any mature congregations as an introduction to the sermon; but it now occupies far too much space in the public worship and confidence of the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is gradually encroaching on the dominion of the Bible and the pulpit. This is their error. Per- haps the error of other Protestant churches is, that the people depend too much on the pulpit and preacher, and do not themselves worship God as they ought in the public service. The preacher should instruct the people, but the whole congregation should publicly worship God ; and in this view a stated service is not unreasonable, perhaps desirable. 52 SERVIMt The style of preaching among them is more method. ical than ours, and perhaps their sermons are in gen- eral more elaborate. They are more calm and staid; neither so discursive in their matter, nor so free and energetic in their manner as we. We have less uni- fornmity of manner and more naturalness; they more mannerism, both in gesture and voice. Their general pitch of voice is low, and their modulation solemn; we not only use a higher pitch, but a more varied and sprightly modulation, imparting greater vivacity to the expression. They have been influenced somewhat by the tone of the Established Church; we by the spirit of our Republican institutions. The general topics of pulpit discourse must, of course, be the same in both countries; but I think it may be said with truth that they preach the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel, repentance, justification, and sanctifica- tion, with more frequency and power than we do. With them there is more instruction and less excitement. What we call revivals are scarcely known among them; arid, perhaps, for this reason, while their numbers do not increase so rapidly, their societies, as a whole, sustain their profession better, and exclusions from membership are not so frequent, in proportion to the relative num- bers in church-fellowship. Mly general impression of the Wesleyan preachers was very favourable. They clearly comprehend their great work, which involves the spiritual interests of a multitude of people ; to the tasks which it imposes they devote their energies, and aspire to nothing more. There are exceptions to this remark; Dr. Newton, Dr. Bunting, and Dr. Dixon may be mentioned. I referred to this matter of mannerism once in a social circle, with the remark that I believed they were improving. " Yes," was the reply. " Perhaps," said I, " Dr. Fisk's book has aided an causing the Lnprovemnent." This was only answered by a smile. E2 53 PREACHING. In looking over the body of preachers assembled in Conference, I could see the stamp of genius, according to the great world's idea of it, upon hardly a single face or form; but everywhere the expression of good sense and of regular habits of subordination to authority. They are generally men of fine physical health. Train- ed for action rather than speculation, they are better adapted to promote the ascertained interests of religion and commllon life, than to enlarge the bounds of knowl- edge and to advance society to its highest forms of lib- erty and cultivation. Though not distinguished, as a body, for great abilities or acquirements, they are rich- ly endowed with the wisdom of experience, with a ready perception of the best means to attain valuable ends, with great benevolence of heart, with perfect willing- ness to work, and that steadfastly, and with an unshaken confidence in their cause. They have not the enthu- siasm of young apostles, commencing the conversion of the world ; but they exhibit the regular activity of men labouring according to the surest rules, with undoubting anticipations of success. To such a body of men are the interests of English Methodism intrusted. Thus far they have nobly fulfilled their high vocation. The Methodists in England may be said to consti- tute a community almost mature; we are yet in the first periods of an adventurous youth. They reached their maturity much earlier than we shall, because their work lay in a comparatively small compass, in the midst of a dense population; ours spreads over the almost inconceivable space of 4000 miles one way, and 2000 the other, including a scattered population, much of which is actually involved in the wilderness. They have had an island to cultivate, we a continent. Their well-framed building, now a century old, "fitly 54 COMPARISON. joined together" and instinct in every part with spir- itual life diffused through its 450,000 members, is in many respects a fitting model upon which we may fash- ion our own vast edifice, now in progress, with a million of members, not yet sufficiently wvell " compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the ef- fcctual working in the measure of every part." We have the framework on a larger and more perfect scale; but their details are more complete. The effi- cacy of their plan depends upon personal efforts and influence, and they always accomplish their proposals; our action depends more upon constitutions, by-laws, and speeches, and we are better at making resolutions than in carrying theim out. In this respect their action is English, ours American. We need more system and energy in our financial plans for missions and education, and more personal efforts to carry them out success- fully. In these things they excel us greatly. In regard to the personal relations of preachers and people, I think it may be said that they secure more re- spect, we more love; they command more veneration fiom the people, and exert a greater influence by means of their office than we; perhaps, on the other hand, the degree of personal, in proportion to official influence, is greater with us. Upon the whole, their entire influence with the people is far beyond ours. The tone of public Rev. Dr Dixon, in his "Origin, c., of Methodism," remarks that, ",taking into account the present numbers and position of the 'American Methodist Episcopal Church,' the wide area of the United States, the rapidly- increasing population of the country, the adaptation of their system to meet the wants of a scattered and new population, and, abQve all, the complete- ness of their church order, which is evidently looked upon with affectionate and loyal veneration on the part of the people, wve are furnished with moral data for the conclusion, that the American Methodist Church must, in the ordinary course of things, become one of the greatest, if not the greatest, united Protestant body in the world."-(P. 342, N. Y. ed.) COMPARISONs. 55 feeling in regard to differences of rank, which grows out of the very structure of society in the country, per- vades the relation of preachers and people in the Wes- leyan connexion, and gives the former a relative influ- ence which would be impracticable in America. FINANCES. The financial results obtained by the Wesleyans have long been a matter of astonishment to the world and of pride to themselves. Their missionary operations cost them 500,000 annually. They give a decent and even respectable support to 1268 travelling preachers and their families, engaged in the work in the United Kingdom. They provide, also, for the education of the sons and daughters of their ministers, for which purpose they have built two schools, Kingswood and Wood- house Grove; and when the pupils cannot be admitted to these, a regular appropriation is made to assist their education elsewhere. under the direction of their pa- rents. They have liberally provided for the instruction and support of the young men admitted on trial, during the time of their probation, by the establishment of two Theological Institutions, placed under the direction of able men. To all this we may add the erection, repair, and alteration of chapels, and the extraordinary ex- penses of any preachers who are visited with affliction in their own persons or their families. These require in the aggregate at least 1,500,000 annually; which, added to the 500,000 for missionary operations, makes the sum of two millions of dollars contributed yearly by 360,000 members and 1268 preachers in Great Britain and Ireland. There can be but little doubt that the regular annual contributions by the 360,000 members and 1268 preachers, composing the British and Irish 56 FINANCf4E S. connexion, actually exceed those of the American con- nexion, composed of more than a million of members and four thousand preachers.+ The solution of this difference is not found in the su- perior wealth of the British connexion ; in this respect we far surpass them. There are, perhaps, a few indi- vidual Methodists in England more wealthy than any in America; but the mass of their people are far poorer than ours. There is this difference, however: the cap- ital of the more substantial English Methodists is em- ployed almost altogether in trade, or invested in pro- ductive stocks. Hence they have ready money always at hand, or regularly accruing. The capital of the American is, for the most part, invested in real estate, which produces more slowly. The poorer people among them, who makc up the vast bulk of the church, live by their weekly labour, which produces ready money, however small the amount, enabling them to contribute their penny a week regularly, and their shil- lingD a quarter, because they always have it at the time, and have no engagements to meet; they divide their pittance cheerfully between their two great wants, their daily bodily subsistence and the supply of spiritual food for their souls. The state of society and the arrangYe- ments of trade are such that the common people cannot enter into speculation; hence they make no contracts, to meet which they are required to save every penny and as their weekly earnings are nearly all required for their subsistence, they have no opportunity to lay up in store against anticipated wants. Hence they give freely It is scarcely necessary to add here their occasional efforts, such as a million of dollars raised at their centenary collections, and now a proposition to raise a million nmore, to found seven hundred schools within seven years. This collection is now in progress FINAN CES. 57 and regularly, and more in proportion to their means than any other class; and instruction and custom have rightly impressed them with the feeling of duty in these matters. But that portion of the American con- nexion which now lives by its weekly or monthly earn- ings, whether men or women, owing to the constant openings for trade or speculation, look forward to be- coming proprietors of some valuable interests, and hence have a powerful motive to save every penny to accomplish their personal projects, which, from a train of past circumstances, easy of explanation, they have been led to judge the first duty they owe to any body or any interest. Hence the support and enlargement of the institutions of the church is much less felt as a moral obligation by the American than by the English Methodist. But these facts do not give a complete so- lution of the great difference in the amounts of money raised by the Wesleyans in Europe and the Methodists in America. The chief cause is doubtless to be found in their more perfect system of finance, into which they incorporate the private members more closely and ac- tively than we. There is not, perhaps, a more wisely and perfectly digested system of financial operations in the world. Its fundamental principles are the following: 1. Their several funds do not consist in money at in- terest, or property yielding a revenue, but arise annu- ally from the " living Church," under special regula- tions, and each for its own particular objects. 2. These funds are divided into two general classes. (1.) The circuit funds, raised annually, and appropria- ted by the stewards to meet the quarterage and subsist- ence of the preachers stationed within their bounds. (2.) The connexional finds, raised for objects of com- mon interest to the whole connexion, and placed under 58 FU N DS. the direction of mixed comnmittees, composed of equal numbers of preachers and laymen. 3. The plan of raising the circuit funds is to require each member to contribute at least a penny (two cents) a week and a shilling (twenty-five cents) a quarter. 4. The plan of raising the connexional funds is by a private subscription and a public collection for each fund at a fixed time in the year. Sometimes there is an average assessment for each member, as sixpence a year to the Preachers' Auxiliary Fund. These several connexional funds are farther augmented by occasional donations and bequests; and some of them by regular grants from the profits of the Book-Room. 5. The institution of a connexional fund is a matter of great importance to the people, as the " living Church" is the capital which must produce it annually. The suggestion to create such a fund may come from the Conference or from the principal private members; but in either case the deliberations take place in large, select meetings of preachers and members, which ma- ture the plan and refer it to the next Conference, which generally adopts it with scarce an alteration, and pla- ces it under the direction of a mixed committee, usually of fifteen preachers and fifteen prominent laymen, with two general treasurers, one a preacher and one a lay- man. This combination of clerical and lay counsel and action is carried into every financial operation, from the General Missionary Fund to the smallest class collection. 6. Each committee, treasurer, secretary, superintend- ent, and steward, is required to proceed exactly ac- cording to the rules prescribed for their several trusts, and to accomplish their work precisely at the times pre- scribed. There are several of these connexional funds, among which the following arc the most important: 59 FUND114. 60 1. The Contingent Fund.-It contributes to assist poor circuits, answering to our domestic missions. From it also are paid any expenses which arise to a preacher or his family by affliction: travelling expenses incurred in obedience to resolutions of the Conference, and in some other cases also; expenses of lawsuits, and what may in general be called the incidental ex- penses of the connexion. It amounted to some 50,000 in 1843. 2. Children's Fund.-Appropriations are made from this fund towards the subsistence of the children of preachers. The number of children chargeable upon the fund is carefully ascertained at Conference; even those who are expected to come into the list during the year being counted in anticipation. The whole num- ber of children is divided by the whole number of mem- bers in the connexion; the result in 1843 was, "one hundred and forty-four members shall provide the al- lowance for one child" (Eng. 1,in. for 1843, p. 109). The " allowances," then, and not the children, are char- ged to each district throughout the work, according to its number of members. Thus, for instance, the Lon- don district has 23,555 members, and is charged with 164 children's allowances. But if, in stationing the preachers, 164 children should not fall within the Lon- don district, the district must still raise 164 allowances, and the surplus is transferred to the general treasurer of the fund, to be appropriated to other districts where there may be more children than belong to them, ac- cording to the ratio of their numbers. When the dis- tricts are informed of the number of children's allowan ces charged to them severally, each district farther dis. tributes the allowances among its circuits according to their respective numbers. And thus the fund is raised. II II -AN disslc This page in the original text is blank. MISSIONARY SYSTEM, 3. General Chapel Fund, for the relief of embarrassed chapels. 4. Preachers' Auxiliary Fund, for the special relief of aged and wornout preachers. 5. The General School Fund, from which appropri- ations are made towards defraying the expenses of the education of the sons and daughters of preachers. 6. The Missionary Fund, which is the great glory of the connexion, and is strongly intrenched in the hearts of the preachers. We in America, I am persuaded, might learn some- thing from these general principles. We do not draw the people into sufficiently close union with us in de- vising and executing our extraordinary financial proj- ects, such as the founding of academies and colleges. Perhaps this is one cause why they are so feebly sup- ported. A complete financial system should be de- vised and incorporated in the discipline, and made a duty binding on every one, under authority of the Gen- eral Conference. THE MISSIONARY SYSTEM. As the stranger passes from the Bank eastward along Threadneedle-street, upon approaching Bishops- gate-street he will see before him a commanding edi- fice, upon whose noble front may be read, " WESLEYAN CENTENARY 11ALL AND MISSION HOUSE, A.D. 1839." Not only the eve of the British Wesleyan and of the stranger Methodist from the New World rests upon it with pleasure, but the hearts of a hundred thousand Christians in Asia, Africa, and in destitute parts of Eu- rope and America, beat responsive to the joyful sound of the Gospel sent to them from that noble edifice. Perhaps it may be said of the British Wesleyan con- 63 4MISIONARY SYSTEM. nexion, what cannot be said of any other church in the world, that more than one fourth of her members, min- isters, and money belong to her missions. She has 1268 preachers and 359,028 members at home, and 370 preachers and 92,258 members in foreign stations. She expends, according to our calculation, 1,500,000 an- nually in her home work, and 500,000 in her foreign missions. Her missionary correspondence is with kings and princes abroad, and her communications with the nobles in high places in her own land. The informa- tion which she collects through her missionaries cheers and opens the hearts of her people at home, and is sought after and relied on by committees of Parliament appointed for the express purpose of collecting such in- formation. The regularity, energy, and success of her missionary enterprises are matter of wonder to other churches, and have provoked very many to emulation. This is not the least of her precious fruits. The secret of this success lies, first, in the missionary spirit with which her whole population is imbued, and has been since the days of Wesley, so that each one, from the man of wealth to the little cotton-spinner in the mills, feels that it is a first duty to make the annual contribu- tion to the missionary cause. So powerful a hold has this sense of obligation, that the missionary funds for the last year or two have not diminished, notwithstand- ing the long-continued stagnation in every branch of trade. Secondly, the spirit among the people is kept alive by its prevalence among the preachers and the leading members, who postpone every consideration for the in- terest of the missions. The Conference provides for the anniversaries in the various districts by appointing "deputations" for each, and the district meeting arran- 64 MISSIONARY SYSTEM. ges the times and places. These occasions are great missionary festivals, in which the people participate with intense delight. Thirdly, there is a centralization of power in London, at the Mission House, where four able secretaries di- rect the whole movement, assisted by fifteen ministers and fifteen laymen. The work is divided between these secretaries, so that each one is specially appointed for a particular part of it: for instance, Dr. Alder, who spent some years in America, has charge of the mis- sions there; Mr. Hoole, those of India and its depend- ances, where he spent some years; Mr. Beecham, the other foreign missions, particularly in Africa; and Dr. Bunting is a father among them, aiding by his advice rather than by his labour. Fourthly, the missionaries are selected, by the Con- ference, from those who offer themselves to go to for- eign stations. When the class of preachers is admitted on trial, the inquiry is made, Who will offer themselves for the foreign work and the same inquiry is made of each class when admitted into full connexion. A list of all who offer is sent to the missionary secretaries in London, and they are placed more or less under their control, for the purpose of directing their studies in view of their employment abroad. They may be placed in the Theological Institution or engaged in the home work, but are never sent out to the missions until they have travelled four years, or filled up their period of trial, their residence in the seminary being taken into account to some extent. Thus the Conference selects the missionaries, and places them at the disposal of the secretaries and General Committee in London. This secures good and tried men. The secretaries, counsel- led by the committee, assign each missionary his work, F 2 6 5 requiring him to engage to remain abroad from eight to twenty years, according to the healthfulness and condition of the country to which he is sent. Thus wisdom and promptness are secured by the appoint- ment of the missionaries by the secretaries, who are fully informed of the whole field of missionary labour. If the missionaries should prove unfaithful, the sccrc- taries and committee have the power to order their im- mediate return home. Particular instructions are fur- nished to each for his guidance. Fifthly. Their work is placed on suc high and com- manding ground that it is an honour to be promi- nently appointed on a foreign station. The results are so glorious that the most satisfactory material is reg- ularly obtained from which to compose the monthly missionary notices, by which the missionary flame is regularly fed throughout the connexion. EDUCATION. The plans of education among the Methodists in Eng- land are not so extensive and elevated as with us; but they are more strictly religious and theological, and a thousand times better sustained. They have no col- leges and universities existing even by name and char- ter, as with us, with power to confer degrees in the arts, in theology, or in law. In this respect we have greatly the advantage of them. And although they have some men distinguished for classical, scientific, and theological learning, perhaps superior to any among us, yet we have a far greater proportion of well-edu- cated men in our various conferences, with the proba- bility of a more rapid increase. Their plan of educa- tion comprehends five classes of schools. First. Sunday Schools.-These are better arranged 66 EDUCATION. and generally more efficiently conducted than with us. The Conference has prepared a digested system for their management ; and the mature and intelligent members of the Church enter very generally into their service. Ours are left too much to the young and inexperienced.+ Secondly. Day Schools, under the supervision of the preacher in the circuit and a committee of the society. In these the teacher is required to be an approved mem- ber of the Methodist Church. The real estate, if any, connected with each school is settled in trust for the con- nexion, as are the chapels. The superintendent of the circuit is charged with visiting, and occasionally instruct- ing the pupils. The instruction given comprehends the branches of a plain English education. There is now in progress a general effort to raise pound;235,000, or more than a million of dollars, within seven years, to enlarge the number and increase the efficiency of the schools, so as to make them equal to the wants of the whole connexion. Thirdly. Schools for the Education of the Sons of Traicelling Preachers. -These are two: Kingswood, near Bristol, and Woodhouse Grove, near Leeds. They accommodate about two hundred pupils, and contain classical and mathematical departments, each under the charge of a tutor, with assistants. A prominent mem- ber of the Conference is chosen as governor, who has a general oversight of the affairs of the school, and charge of the religious interests and conduct of the pupils. Each preacher receives pound;12 from the school fund, and six guineas from the children's fund (about 80), towards the support of his son at either school; or to- wards his education elsewhere, if he cannot be admitted to them. For their daughters, eight guineas are appro- Their Sunday Schools in 1843 cost them 107,301 48. SCHOOLS. 67 priated by the school fund, and six guineas, I believe, from the children's fund. These schools have furnished a number of ministers to the connexion, to the Estab- lished Church, and to the foreign missions. Fourthly. Proprietary Schools.-In process of time, many individuals in the connexion, by their industry and fiugality, became wealthy, and for the sons of these no suitable place of education was provided. Many were unwilling to send them to the universities, partly because they did not intend them for the learned pro- fessions, and partly because they desired to secure to them a sound religious education, which they judged could not be had at Oxford or Cambridge. It was finally concluded to found Proprietary Schools on a highly respectable scale, and have them so constituted that their religious interests should be confided to the Conference, while the literary and pecuniary manage- ment should devolve on the trustees, who should all, however, be Methodists. The plan is of recent ori- gin, and The Sheffield Wesleyan Proprietary Grammar School is its first noble fruit. The edifice is built of hewn stone, with Corinthian porticoes, and is situated in beautiful and extensive grounds in the immediate vicinity of the town. It will accommodate two hundred pupils, with the governor, teachers, steward, and matron; and cost, with its furni- ture, 100,000. It has baths, sick-rooms, laundries, and every convenience for the instruction, health, and com- fort of the pupils. Pupils of any religious sect are ad- mitted, upon the payment of the fees and submission to the rules. The course of instruction embraces the classics, mathematics, natural sciences, and commercial branches; to which are added music and drawing. Thirteen gentlemen compose the Board of Instruction. 68 SCHOOLS. I M lfa !!IW U) C z ITI ;o C: he V) c 1- Il SHEFFIELD SCHOOL. I visited this institution during the Sheffield Confer- ence, in 1843, in company with. Mr. Moss, Mr. Long- den, and several other gentlemen. When we entered the great hall, the tyros were at their tea, which was served up in nice bowls; and Mr. Longden, without my being apprized of his intention, announced The Presi- dent of Dickinson Colzege. Upon which the whole corps of students commenced stamping, and then look- ed expectingly towards the president; but he spoke not. They commenced again, and so violently did some of them pound the floor and shake the tables, that their tea was thrown overboard; and then they stopped, and looked at the president again; but he held his lips closed, and only yielded the acknowledgment of a bow. They wanted a speech; had a right to demand it, and in this pleasant way; but the president had a right to decline, which he did, and then walked through the hall to the beautiful chapel. There was no time for a speech, as I had an approaching engagement in the town. Fifth. Theological Seminaries.-The establishment of the Wesleyan Theological Institution for the improve- ment of the junior preachers formed an era in the his- tory of Methodism. The institution at present has two branches: one at Didsbury, near Manchester, which will accommodate about forty pupils; the other at Richmond, near London, which has room for sixty stu- (lents, I visited the Richmond branch in company with Rev. Mr. Jobson and his lady, to whom we were in- debted for much of the enjoyment of one of the pleas- antest days we spent in England. The edifice is an el- egant specimen of modern Gothic, built of hewn stone, and is surrounded with beautiful grounds. The smoke of London, ten miles off, may he seen from the gardens. 70 THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS. Just at hand is Richmond Hill, the long-celebrated scene of England. Below, the Thames is seen, not larger than an American creek, winding its way through the rich meadows, and reflecting from its glassy surface the stately swans and the light boats of the fisher-boys. Every height in view is thickly wooded, and here and there noble mansions or gray church-towers appear, imbosomed in the parks or rising above the villages. It is in this magnificent building and amid such scenes as these, within hearing of the great metropolis, that the young men are educated who are to form, in genera- tions to come, the Wesleyan ministry. The very am pointments about them tend to elevate and refine their minds and hearts. Some have feared that an educa- tion under such circumstances might be injurious. No one would indulge such fears who could hear them speak of their religious experience in presence of the assembled Conference and a vast assembly, as they do before their ordination. I heard them at the London Conference in 1842, and again at Sheffield in 1843. Their uniform testimony to the great advantages they had enjoyed in the Theological Institution, in regard not less to personal piety than to mental cultivation, excited deep and irrepressible feeling in preachers and people. The instruction in the seminary is given chiefly by two tutors, one in theology and one in classics, who are aided. as occasion requires, by assistants. The deport- ment and personal religion of the students are looked after by the governor, who mneets them in class, and holds the most intimate personal relations with them. The present governors and the theological tutors (Rev. Thomas Jackson at Richmond, and Rev. Dr. Hannah at Didsbury) are among the most able men in the con- nexion. I had no opportunity of hearing Mr. Jackson 71 CIRCULATION OF BOOKS. preach; but should infer, from the propriety with which he read the morning service, that his manner is good. The manner of Dr. Hannah is not so commendable, and would be a bad model for the students. Yet his sermons are so thoroughly imbued with good sense and evangel- ical piety, and delivered with such a warm and pene- trating earnestness, that he is deservedly one of the most esteemed of the English preachers. The funds of the institution were chiefly derived from the Centenary collection, of which it was the first object. To these are constantly adding annual subscriptions and donations from the most wealthy and intelligent members of the Church, whose confidence in the school is becoming stronger every day. CIRCULATION OF BOOKS. The profits of the Book-Room, which is the property of the Conference, are several thousand pounds a year. They are divided, by order of Conference, among the connexional funds, and, by their committees, distributed to their appropriate objects. Their list of publications is smaller than ours; the chief works contained in it be- ing those of Wesley, Fletcher, Benson, Watson, Ed- mondson, Treifry, and Jackson. They do not circulate as many books as we. As far as appears from their catalogue, none of the works of Dr. Adam Clarke are published at the Book-Room; and I am sorry to say that I scarcely ever heard his name mentioned by the preachers, and never with the respect with which we in America have been accustomed to regard it. This is probably owing to his views on the eternal sonship of Christ, which brought out, as his antagonists, Mr. Watson and Mr. Benson, with whose opinions the Con- ference coincided. To this day every young preacher 72 is examined on the question before he is admitted, and this professedly because of Dr. Clarke's opinions. Cer- tainly this opinion of Dr. C.'s need not have created such a stir; all that he has written on the subjoct is is- sued from our Book-Room, and yet is perfectly harm- less. We are firmer, wiser, or duller than they. Dr. Clarke was eminently the man of the people, and they venerate his memory. The publications of the Book-Concern are better got up, in respect to typography and general appearance, than ours ; but the difference is not greater than is common between the publications of respectable Eng- lish and American.houses. These are the facts of English Methodism. In sta- ting them, I have occasionally made comparisons with the American connexion; there is one farther compar- ison which forces itself on the American Methodist when he visits England. He is struck with the fact that, although England is a monarchy and America a republic, the popular element is much more generally diffused in Enlish than in American Methodism. I have already referred to the joint operation of ministers and laymen in the origination and management of all general funds; also to the great development of popu- lar influence in the stationing of the preachers; and to these inay be added the law, that, though the class-lead- ers are nominated by the superintendent of' the circuit, they must be confirmed by the leader's meeting. Not- withstanding, it must be recollected that no legislative power is vested in the poople or their representatives in any way: they are only more directly employed in the action of church machinery than with us. While in this respect they take an equal part, in many things VOL. 11.-G 73 COMPARISON. 74 COMPARISON. at least, with the preachers, it is still the case that the authority of the Conference is decisive, either directly, as the body to whom all general plans are submitted for ultimate decision, or indirectly, by means of the in- ferior organizations, such as district conferences, c. One cause of the difference to which I have alluded between American and English Methodism lies in the comparatively small territory covered by the latter, and the compactness of society, which enables the people to act more conveniently together in Quarterly and Mix- ed Meetings, and also to assemble rnove readily from all parts of the country at any central point. The an- nual meeting of Conference draws laymen 'from all quarters of the kingdom: our General Conference must hold its meeting at some point a thousand miles or more distant from some sections of the work. The experi- ment of District Conferences failed among us from this very difficulty. Agtain, our original organization was framed by Mr. Wesley, who, in founding the general superintendency, endowed it with many of the powers which he himself exercised in England. But the best thing that he could do in England was to establish the Legal Conference of One Hundred Preachers. From the very nature of the case, difficulties arose after his death. Many of the preachers not of the Hundred became jealous of those who were, and many of the people shared and stimu- lated their feelings. Party strifes soon became violent. The vexed question of the administration of the sacra- ments heightened the excitement, and division seemed inevitable. In 1795 the Conference devised and issued the Plan of Pacification, which has led to much of the popular influence that I have spoken of. While it re- asserted all the legal rights of the Conference, it made SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. 7.5 special grants to the people, and admitted them to a greater activity in the minor movements of the society, e. g., in Quarterly and Mixed District Meetings, than they had before enjoyed. Farther concessions were made in 1797. The right of the Quarterly Conferences to petition for preachers was secured, I think, in 1805. Without recommending the adoption, specifically, of any of the measures of our British brethren, I cannot but express my conviction that it is expedient for us to invite our people to more immediate co-operation with us, especially in the formation and management of gen- ertil financial arrangements. SOCIAL INTERCOURSE. Fromi various causes, I had taken up an impression that an American Methodist, although a minister, might not find an easy and cordial welcome among Metho- dists in England. unless accredited as a representative; but in this respect I was agreeably disappointed. As a mere traveler, I had no claims upon them except as be- longing to the common family of Methodism, yet their invitations to the social circle and festive board were as hearty as the hospitality of my native land, and more numerous than I could possibly accept. Although, in general, there is more ceremony in so- ciety than is usual with us, it never becomes trouble- some, and, being in keeping with the usages of society generally, is not out of place. Precedence in age or office is rigidly observed. Office claims more respect than age, the president and secretary of the Conference being as commonly addressed by their titles as the bishops among us. Young persons are less obtrusive and more attentive than in America. Breakfast peu'ties at ten o'clock are very common, SOCIAL HARITS. and afford opportunities of less ceremonious and more agreeable intercourse than at dinner, the ladies remain- ing all the while in the room. Those which I attended concluded with prayer by some aged minister, and with (what I had thought antiquated) subscribing names in the ladies' albums. The tone of conversation was gen- erally lively and pleasant, the dinner talk being varied discussions on political, religious, and social topics-not often heavy, and always good-humoured. The junior members of the company would listen to the conversa- tion of the nearest group, and hardly ever spoke except to cry " Hear, hear," when some especially good thing was saying which they desired all the company to en- joy. In many of these parties I enjoyed, indeed, " the feast of reason and the flow of soul." It will be long before I forget the dinner-parties at Centenary Hall (a select company of preachers), at Dr. B.'s, Dr. A.'s, Mr. B.'s, Mr. R.'s, Mr. T.'s, and Dr. C.'s, in London; Mr. J.'s, in Sheffield; and Mr. G.'s, near Manchester. There is one feature in which these parties differed from any we have in similar circles at home, and which recalled to my mind my earliest visits to New-York, Phil- adelphia, and Baltimore, when sparkling wines graced the table and circulated freely, even among Methodist preachers. So it is still in England. It sometimes re- quired a little nerve to decline the request of the lady whose guest you were, to " have the pleasure of a glass of wine with you," especially when, according to usage, you should have made the request of her. After the ladies retire, the cloth is removed, and the wine moves round the table freely. I do not recollect ever to have preach- ed a sermon in England without being offered a glass of wine afterward in the vestry. Wine was frequently distributed in Conference during its active session. The 76 COMPARISON. 77 Temperance movement has not taken hold of our breth- ren in England; and they see wine-drinking, not as we do now, but as we did twenty years ago. The custom is common in all good society in England. The relative social importance and respectability of Methodists, as a body, is greater in America than in England. There are no offices, either in our State or General Governments, except the Presidency, that have not been filled by members of the Methodist Church. Her ministers are occasionally professors in state uni- versities, and often chaplains to Congress and state le- gislatures. I have heard cf Dno case in England of high office having been held by a Methodist. G 2 METHODISM. CHAPTER VI. METHODISM IN ENGLAND. Origin of Methodism.-Origin of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ameri- ca.-Question of the Sacraments.-Relation of Methodism to the Estab- lishment.-Recent Modifications of that Relation.-Policy of the Establish- ment.-The Factory Bill.-Dr. Dixon's View of the Position of Methodism. -The Free Church of Scotland.-Political Importance of the Methodists. -Relation of Methodism to the Working Classes.-Attachment of the Methodists to the Establishment declining. THE character of John Wesley is settled by the ver- dict of the world. No man now attempts to deny his genius, to impugn his motives, or to question his sagaci- ty. Yet some parts of his conduct are still represent- ed, and perhaps with truth. as involving apparent dis- crepancy, if not contradiction. The key to these appa- rent inconsistencies is to be found in the fact that, du- ring his whole career as a reformer, he was under the influence of two great forces, generally coincident, sometimes separate, and occasionally even antagonistic. They were his loyalty and attachment to the Estab- lished Church on the one hand, and his strong convic- tion, on the other, that he was called of God to be the founder of a religious society for the diffusion of scrip- tural holiness throughout the land. Through all his life he endeavoured to act without violating either of these obligations. In some cases this was impossible. He followed where Providence led him, and his obligations to the Church gave way to his sense of duty. But it is now seen clearly that, in some very important matters, he did not keep up with the leadings of Providence, and countervailed his own conduct in some particulars 78 ORlUIN orF METHODI6M. 79 by reiterating his injunctions to his people not to sep- arate from the Established Church. For instance, he plainly saw it was the will of God that men not regu- larly educated for the ministry should, nevertheless, preach the Gospel; and when the question was present- ed to himli to obey the Church or forbid them, and thus contravene the designs of Providence, he hesitated not a moment to disobey the Church. And when it was imnpossible for these men-and, shortly after, for himself also-to use the parish churches for preaching, he and they both retired to the fields, and preached to the mul- titudes in violation of the wishes and usages of the Church. Yet, during all this time, his sole object was to bring sinners to repentance, and lead them to the Church; and in order to secure this last result, he refused to al- low his preachers to administer the sacraments, though he set them apart by solemn religious services, and au- thorized them to perform every function of the ministry besides. Yet he claimed the power to ordain by virtue of his ordination as presbyter in the Church of England, believing presbyters and bishops to be of the same or- der. Yet, for a long time, he refused to exercise this In this opinion Mr. Wesley followed the Scriptures, the early Church, many of the schoolmen and canonists of the Middle Ages, all the Reformers on the Continent of Europe, and the most eminent of the English Reformers. The views of these last upon the subject of church orders have been strange- ly lost sight of, in late times, by many Episcopalians. In the Collection of Rec- ords appended to Bishop Burnet's History of the Reformation may be found "A Declaration made of the Functions and Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests," dated A.D. 1537 or 8, which contains the following pregnant declarations: " This office (the ministry) was committed by Christ and his apostles unto certain persons only, that is to say, unto priests or bishops." [ Tlie truth is, that in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinction of orders, but only of deacons or ministers, and of priests or bishops." This declaration is signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of York, London, and a number of others. Crantner's opinions 80 EPISCOPACY. power within the jurisdiction of the Established Church, because there were bishops within those limits who on the subject are sufficiently well known. The framers of the Articles of Religion held no exclusive or extravagant notions in regard to the Church and the ministry. " The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful nmen, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the satne." " It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same. And these we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen anda called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard." The reader will perceive that the authority of bishops is [not'. Ju., divinimo, but] ''public authority" in the congregation, i. e., in the visible Church of Christ. That by public authority was meant and intended the authority of the state, cannot he denied by any that know the history of the English Refortrtation. It is not for me to vindicate the propriety of the article, but simply to show that it inculcates no Divine right of bishops. "They who drew it." says Bishop Bnrnet, "1 had the state of the several churclhes before their eves that had been differently reformed." The mature opinions of Mr. Wesley on the subject of orders were thus coincident with those of the best English Reform. ers. It was on these principles that he listened to the call of 200 ministers and 60,000 members of the Methodist societies in the emancipated colonies (now the United States), where there was at that time no bishop at all, and ordained and soot over Dr. Coke as superintendent, with authority to ordain Mr Asbury to the same office. for the establishlnent of the Methodist Church in America. The case of the Methodist societies was precisely such a one as Bishop Burnet ptits in his remarks upon the Articles of Religion above re- ferrel to. - If a company of Christians find the public worship where they live to be so defiled that they cannot with a good conscience join in it, and if they do not know of any place to which they can conscientiously go, where they may worship God purely and in a regular way-if, I say, such a body. finding some that have been ordained, though to the lower functions, should submit itself entirely to their conduct, or, finding none of these, should, by a comntotm consent, desire sotne of their own number to minister to them in holy things. on(l should, upon that beginning, grow up to a regulated con. stitution. though we are very sure that this is quite omtt of all rule, and could not be done without a very great sin, unless the necessity were great and ap. parent; yet, if the necessity is real and not feigned, this is not condemned or annulled by the article; for when this grows to a constitution, and when it was begun by the consent of a body who are supposed to have authority in such an extraordinary case, whatever some hotter spirits may have thought of this since that time, yet we are very sure that not only those who penned the Articles, but the body of this church for half an age after, did, notwith- TAHE SACRAMENTS. were appointed to ordain; but he did exercise it for Scotland, where the English bishops had no authority, and for America, whose connexion with the English Church was dissolved by the Revolution. The increase of his societies gave rise to a strong desire on the part of many of his people to have the sac- raments administered among themselves, and this de- sire became more and more urgent wherever the parish ministers were notoriously worldly and wicked. At length, in the latter years of his ministry, he ordained three of his own preachers to assist him in administep- ing the sacraments to those societies that demanded them. This he felt to be his duty, under the conditions of the case: yet it was a violation of his obligations as a churchman. He acted on his often avowed prin- ciple, that where the commandments of men conflicted with the will of God, he was bound to obey God rather than men. Yet he did not provide for a regular trans- mission of ordination in the Conference, by directing those whom he had ordained by the imposition of hands standing these irregularities, acknowledge the foreign churches so constitu- ted to be true churches in all the essentials of a church, though they hadl been at first irregularly formed, and continued still to be in an imperfect state, and therefore the general words in which this part of the article is framed seem to have been designed on purpose not to exclude them." I do not quote this passage as expressing the views of Methodists fully in regard to the organization of their church, but to show that, in the opinion of Church of England Episcopalians (except the " hotter spirits"), Mr. Wesley wvas fully justified in his ordination of Dr. Coke, and the American Metho- dists in inviting him so to do. Our church was thus organized in America in 1784, some time before the establishment of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Our ordination, according to the Scriptures and usages of the ancient Church, is Presbyterian: our government, according to the same usages, Episcopal. This is precisely the case with the IRefornned churches of Denmark and Sweden. The other Protestant churches on the Continent have not adopted the Episcopal form of government, and have no apostolic succession in the Ifigh Church sense; yet Bishop Burnet says the English Church did " acknowledge the foreign churches to be true churches in all the essentials of a church." 81 ORDINATION. so to ordain others. This would have been to estab- lish a regular church, which was not his intention, al- thouah he must have ibreseen that to this result his own work strongly tended. Although, perhaps unfortunate- ly, he left a solemn charge to his societies not to sep- arate from the Church, there is evidence that he had some forebodings that, as he had conferred upon his preachers all the functions of a Scriptural ministry ex- cept the formal right, by imposition of hands, to admin- ister the sacraments, they would be compelled by force of circumstances, and a sense of duty to their people, to fall back upon the well-established ground, that the right to administer the sacraments is implied in the Di- vine call to preach the Word, and, as regular pastors, to take the oversight of the flock, to which they were solemnly set apart by appropriate religious services af- ter four years of trial in the ministry. This they were quickly compelled to do after his death, though they did not use imposition of hands until the Conference of 1837, when the abridged form of ordination to elders' orders, which Mr. Wesley had prepared for the Amer- ican connexion, was introduced. It appears, therefore, that all the Wesleyan ministers who were admitted to full communion prior to 1837 have not been ordained by the imposition of hands; but their being solemnly set apart to the work by appropriate religious services in the assembly of the people was taken, and is held, to be valid ordination, for the purpose of authority in the Church, while the Divine warrant is contained in their "being moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon them this ministry." The difference between the English and American connexions in respect to ordination lies in the fact that, in the latter, ordination by imposition of hands has been 82 regularly transmitted through Dr. Coke, Mr. Asbury, and others. The validity of the sacraments. according to the opinions of our British brethren, is not affected by this variation from the common outward form of ordination; but it renders their position somewhat more difficult of defence before the public, owing to the an- cient and deeply-established association in the common mind of the authority conveyed in ordination with the formal imposition "of the hiands of the presbytery." The essential authority does not inhere in the imposi- tion of hands, but in the Divine call to the ministry; and the imposition of hands is a decent and primitive recog- nition of it publicly in the Church. It is to be much regretted that Mr. Wesley did not formally ordain the preachers in connexion with him. Could he have lived twenty or thirty years longer, there is no reasonable ground to doubt but he would have seen the necessity of formally authorizing the administration of the sacraments in his societies by his own preachers. The judgment of the whole connexion since his death, both preachers and people, is to this effect; and however I may venerate the greatness and character of Mr. Wesley, I am bound to believe this judgment is a wise one, and that he him- self would have come to the same conclusion in nearly the same time. At Mr. Wesley's death, the Methodist ministers were in the regular exercise of all the functions of a perfect Christian ministry except the administration of the sac- It would have been in the power of the Conference to secure a regular succession of ordination from Mr. Wesley, 'by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery," if they had, immediately upon his death, called the three presbyters he had ordained, and received ordination at their hands. Perhaps it would have been the part of wisdom, certainly of prudence, to have done so. ORDINATION. 83 WESLEYAN METHODIST CHURCH. raments. It was soon found that they could not avoid taking this last step. Their people longed to partake of the " communion of the body and blood of Christ," ad- ministered by their own faithful pastors; and. though constantly urged to do so, could rarely be induced to commune constantly in the parish churches, especially where the clergy were men of ungodly lives. The im- perative necessity of the measure pressed upon the minds of the preachers; they did not doubt their au- thority to take it; and at last their filial reverence for Mr. Wesley's advice yielded to their sense of duty, and to their assurance that he would have approved their conduct had he been alive to judge of it. The Confer- ence accordingly authorized those ministers who had been, or should be, regularly called and set apart to the work of the ministry, by peculiar religious exercises in the congregation, even without the imposition of hands, to administer the sacraments. This completed their organization as a Church. It was not deemed expedi- ent, however, to change their name from that of " the People called Methodists," as declared in the Deed, to that of the " Wesleyan Methodist Church," which is the designation which occasionally appears in the public prints, and will finally prevail. Thus the Wesleyan connexion insensibly became in reality a church, though without the name. Spurned, neglected, and even sometimes persecuted by the Es- tabl'shment, the Methodists grew strong in their un- sought-for orphanage. Yet, in the spirit of their found- er, they " returned not evil for evil," but retained their love for their unkind mother, and defended her, again and again, from the assaults of her most violent foes. Though they did not adhere to the forms, or fully sub mit to the authority of the Establishment, they revered 8g RELATION TO THE ESTABLISHMENT. it as the bulwark of the national religion, and willingly devoted their tithes for its support. In this respect they differed from Dissenters, whose distinctive characteris- tic is hostility to the union of Church and State. Such was the relation of Methodism to the Establish- ed Church until within a few years past. But the events of that period, if they have not produced a real change of position, have effected a great alteration in the general tone of feeling in the Methodist Church, and in the language of her people, her journals, and her offi- cial sermons, with regard to that position. A syste- matic plan appears to have been formed, and to a great extent carried out, to attack the institutions of Metho- dism, and to attempt a reduction, if not an annihilation of its power. This settled policy of the Established Church to- wards Methodists and Dissenters was adopted some eight or ten years since, particularly with respect to the Methodists, after the great struggle of the Church against the simultaneous and combined attack of the Dissenters, in which contest the Wesleyans stood man- fully by the Church, and did her essential service, if, in- deed, they did not save her: for the opinion in England is quite general, that if the Wesleyans had joined the Dissenters at that time, the Church would have been overthrown, or very materially modified in her consti- tution and powers. A calm succeeded the struggle, and left the Church at leisure to contemplate the dan- gers through which she had passed, and, at the same time, to become sensible that she owed her safety, in a very great degree, to the aid rendered her by the Wes- ieyan societies. The conflict and its consequences clearly established these two facts: 1. That the Church had a deeper hold on the affections of the English peo- VOL. II.-H 85 86 RELATION TO THE, ESTABLISHMENT. ple, and a greater power. in the nation, than was expect- ed, at least by her enemies; and it was readily per- ceived that her influence would be much increased by an improvement in the morals, activity, and piety of her clergy. It ought to be conceded by every generous enemy to the Establishment, that in these respects it has vastly improved within the last ten years, and is still rapidly improving, gaining thereby an increased influ- ence in the British government and with the British public, without a reduction, perhaps with an increase (also) in the interests and influence of Dissenters and Methodists. 2. That there existed in the nation a body of people of such numerical force, and so distributed in the manufacturing and mining districts, as to be of vast political consequence in Church matters, and to whom the Church was too deeply indebted to be easy under the obligation, which was a clear evidence of her dan- ger; for if that people were very convenient, if not ne- cessary to her safety in the hour of conflict, there could be no doubt but their weight on the side of avowed dis- sent might procure her fall. The reduction of this peo- ple became an object of anxious deliberation; but, as they had ever been friends to the Church, the means of reduction must not be violent, or even clear to the com- mon comprehension. It was necessary that the plan should be laid deep in "Divine authority," and then be followed up by a far-reaching and skilful legislation. This resolution, on the part of the master-spirits of the Church, necessarily regarded the Weslevans as Dissent- ers; and to destroy the foundations of both Methodism and Dissent at a blow, and to dissolve their hold on the re- ligious affections and confidence of their people, the bold plea of the exclusive apostolic succession, and the grIa- cious influence of the sacraments only when administer- " CHURCH PRINCIPLES ." cd by the ieglarly ordained clergy, was revived; and hence the Oxford Tracts, or Puseyism. Although it is well understood that there were long and anxious delib- erations in high places, it was not deemed wise that the authority of the Dissenting, and Wesleyan ministers to pr-each God's Holy Word and administer the holy sacra- ments should be formally denounced by the Church; but that the temper of the public mind should be tried by in- dividual authority setting forth the plea, thus leaving the Church to act as circumstances should dictate. In this way the shock on the public mind was not so violent; the leaven worked privately and on private responsibil- ity, and was left to gain respectability and permanence by Episcopal charges, Episcopal appointments, and by the action of the government, if it were found that the public mind would bear it. In the early part of this movement another event drew attention to the Weslevans, and increased the de- sire of the High Church party to reduce them. This was the Centenary Collection, which produced a million of dollars, and showed that this people, to whom the Church had been so much indebted for her safety, was not only numerous, but had the command of more wealth than had been supposed. The plan for the reduction of Dissenters and Meth- Archbishop Whately, inhis ' Kingdom of Christ," gives an account of Church Principles" (Puseyism) very similar to the view here suggested. 'But, as there arc some persons who arc too ready to separate from any re- ligious community on slight grounds, or even through mere caprice, to heap ulp to themselves teachers, having itching ears,' it has been thought-or at least maintained-that the only way of affording complete satisfaction ard repose to the scrupulous, and of repressing schism, is to uphold, under the title of I Church Principles,' the doctrine that no one is a member of Christ's Church, and an heir of the covenanted Gospel-promises, who is not under a ministry ordained by bishops descended in an unbroken chain from the apos- tles" (p. 181). 87 88 EFFORTS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. odists, founded on the plea that they had no Divine au- thority to preach the Gospel or to adminisetr the sacra- ments, worked slowiy; and while it strengthened the Church within herself, it did not carry conquest into the Dissenting population; nor could it be made sufficiently to bear against the palpable and generally acknowl- edged good which the great mass of the poor people had received from their ministry and benevolence. It was necessary, therefore, for the Church to extend her in- fluence among the manufacturing and labouring classes; and the more so, as the right of suffrage was much ex- tended to them, by which means they could influence Parliament; and hence the great and successful effort to increase the number of churches; partly by grants of money from government, and partly by private sub- scription. In the single parish of Shoreditch, London, ten churches have recently been built, chiefly by the influence of the Bishop of London. But churches would not recover the people; and they had been so long un- der the influence of the Dissenting and Wesleyan min- isters, that it was not likely they could be extensively withdrawn by the abstract, and, to them, strange plea of the invalidity of the blessings they had so long en- joyed. It was necessary to make it their interest and their duty to come under the teachings and influence of the Church; and to accomplish this, the agency of the Legislature was essential, in addition to the influence which rich proprietors could exert over their tenants, and. through these, over the labouring people in their employ. This was the state of matters in 1842, when I wrote the following paragraphs from the Conference room in London: "It is now beyond a doubt that the established clergy are intent on practically enforcing their Divine and legal EFFORTS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. claim over every body within their respective parishes. They are beginning, aided by the wardens, to insist on all the parochial funds passing through their hands; they are visiting the proprietors of-lands and masters of houses, and saying, ' We do not see your tenants or workmen at church.' They call on the tenants and say, 'We do not see your servants at church.' This is well understood. The power of the Church is to bear against these delinquents, and the proprietor signifies his wish to the tenant, and the tenant to the servant; the heads of houses signify their wishes to those in their employ, and the poor are told they cannot enjoy the benefit of the parochial funds, as they do not attend the church. The seminaries, and schools, and all places in the uni- versities, are rigidly shut up firom every one not a Churchman. And this whole movement is based on the revived pretension of the apostolic succession. It re- quires no prophetic power to see how this will bear on our young men and on the poor. And the question is, Can the Methodists retain their neutral ground, placed between the double fire, of the Church on the one hand, and the Dissenters on the other If they do, they will surely give evidence of greater patience and piety than usually fall to the lot of men. Time, and not a very long time either, will solve this question ; and I hope our beloved Methodism in Englan'd will stand." The slowly but steadily, developed policy of the Church towards the Wesleyans, as well as Dissenters, had gradually imbued the minds of most of the private members of the societies with dislike to the Church, amounting, to a willingness to oppose her; while the ef- fect on the mind of the ministers was slow and painful distrust, together with an unwillingness to change their friendly position to the Establishment for one of iLdif. H 2 89 ference, if not of opposition. The people were in ad- vance of the ministry, if not clearly to perceive and comprehend their danger, at least to make prompt re- sistance. They felt the plain, palpable wrongs and in- gratitude of the Church, and were ready to resist ; but their habits of respect for their most excellent ministry kept them in check. The preachers were, as their great father. long suffering under the unjust policy of the Church towards them, and began to intimate resist- ance only when the progress of Puseyism made it a question of conscience, and seemed to require them to break up their alliance with the Church, and " earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." It was easy to perceive that, if they were to make successful resistance to Puseyism in the Church-which they regarded as Roman Catholicism, in fact-they must lower, if not extinguish, their respect for the Establish- ment, and declare themselves to be what they were in fact, a true Church of Christ, fully and richly endowed for the instruction, edification, and salvation of the peo- ple. Symptoms of a tendency among the ministry to declare this position appeared at the London Confer- ence of 1842, and found its way into the Pastoral Ad- dress. There the matter rested until the meeting of Parliament, and the introduction of Sir James Graham's Factory Bill, containing a scheme of education for the manufacturing and labouring classes, which placed "We claim, both for our own sakes and yours, all the rights of true Chris- tian pastors; a right which the Head of the Church has repeatedly sanctioned and sealed. This involves a right not only to publish the Word of God to you, and to provide for its publication in the destitute world around, but also to administer the Sacraments. As ministers, then, of our common Milethodist CHURCH," c.-Pastoral:llddress, 1842. 'rhe London Watchman, the organ of the Wesleyans in England, since the Conference of 1842, frequently speaks of their Wesleyan CHURCiH, Do PUSEYI'SM. THE FACTORY BILL. them, by compulsion, under the exclusive instruction of the clergy of the Established Church. The origin and progress of this bill will be an era in the moral legisla- tion of England, and in English Methodism; and from it I date the formal independence of the METHODIST CHURCH IN ENGLAND. The preliminary arrangements to make way for the bill were long in progress, as it was deemed necessary to lay its foundations deep in the public benevolence and sympathy, by procuring, under warrants from the queen, the statistics of the manufacturing and mining districts, showing their utter degradation, and that the people were "a fearful multitude of untutored savages," as Lord Stanley declared, on the 28th of February, in his speech which preceded the indication of the bill by Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary. The reports of these commissioners startled the nation; so much so that the noble lord's motion, " That an humble address be presented to her majesty, praying that her majesty will be graciously pleased to take into her instant and serious consideration the best means of diffusing the benefits and blessings of a moral and religious educa- tion among the working classes of her people," was re- ceived everywhere with acclamation. The public were impatient to hear what reply her majesty would make to such a noble request. At length it came forth in the form of a very voluminous bill from her Home Secre- tary, entitled, " For regulating the employment of chil- dren and young persons in factories, and for the better education of children in factory districts." The title abated somewhat the public enthusiasm; it was found to 'be applicable only to " factory districts ;" it did not take in the nation. Still it was considered a great boon, and the people were inclined to be duly grateful for it; 91 THE FACTORY BILL. and hence the Dissenters and Methodists were some- what slow to perceive its full bearing upon their vast and complicated interests and institutions in the manu- facturing districts. At length they became fully sensi- ble of the effect of the few short educational clauses, al- most smothered in the huge document, and drawn with a tact and skill that indicated more address than could reasonably have been accorded to Sir James, the Home Secretary, in such matters. It was well made out, that the paternity of the educational provisions was to be accredited to some of the most distinguished of the Puseyite clergy; and the people of Leeds will have it that Doctor Hook, of their town, was honoured with the revision of the clauses. The Dissenters and Methodists, once awake to their danger, analyzed the bill with such acumen and power as to make its Jesuitical provisions start into life before the mass of their people, and in a short time thirteen thousand petitions, with two millions of signatures. op- pressed the tables of Parliament, and made the legisla- tors sensible that there was a deep and general feeling of resistance among the people, amounting wellnigh to indignation. But what surprised and alarmed them most of all was the fact that the Wesleyans, as a body, were, for the first time, arrayed against the government and the Church. The educational clauses were revi- sed, but not purified, or, rather, not rectified, and the bill was presented in an amended form. In this form it was met by twelve thousand petitions; and the Wesleyan deputation from Leeds said, in a letter to their member for Yorkshire, " We shall, with the same alacrity as be- fore, and with patient, untiring, and increasing exer- tions, oppose the bill at every stage, up to the very foot of the throne." The bill was finally driven out of Par- 92 THE FACTORY BILL. liament. at least for the time; and its friends. whether right or wrong, charge its loss mainly upon the oppo- sition of the Wesleyans, on whose support they had counted as usual. That the reader may know how just was this first and great opposition of the Methodists to the government, let him remember that the Established Church has comparatively little interest in the manufac- turing towns and mining districts. while the Methodists and Dissenters have watched over these neglected peo- ple, and taught them nearly all they know of morals and religion; and now the Church, in her recent zeal, it is feared, for exclusive principles, rather than for re- ligion, seeks, through the agency of the government, gradually to transfer this whole population to herself, by a system of coercive instruction of the rising gen- eration. This will appear from the following analysis of a portion of the bill; which I take from a letter of Ed- ward Baines, Jr., of Leeds, to the Right Honourable Lord Wharncliff: 1st. The bill, for the first time, enacts that schools shall be built and supported, where any of the great manufactures are carried on, partly out of the Poor's Rate. Two thirds of the sum required for building a school may be advanced out of public money, viz., one third from the Parliamentary grant, through the Com- mittee of Council, and one third out of the Poor's Rate. Whatever deficiency may exist in the means for the annual support of the school is also to be paid out of the Poor's Rate. 2d. The rate-payers are not, directly or indirectly, to have any species of control or influence over the schools, nor any check upon their expenditure. 3d. The bill not only for the first time authorizes the building and maintenance of schools out of the Poor's 93 THE rACTORY BILL. Rate, but- it also for the first time places schools thus paid for out of the public money under the control and management of the clergy of the Established Church, and with such provisions as would make them exclu- sively Church schools. 4th. The bill provides no assistance whatever for any other class of schools. 5th. It actually forbids the employment of a child in any manufacture who does not attend one of these Church schools, except, only, that children may attend a na- tional school, a British and foreign school, or a school within the factory where they work, but only after those schools shall have been reported by an inspector of schools to be " efficiently conducted" (of which he is the sole judge); and it gives no pecuniary aid to such schools. 6th. It makes it unlawful for factory children to at- tend any Wesleyan, Independent, Baptist, or other de- nominational day school. 7th. It enforces the attendance of the children at the Church schools, by penalties both on the mill-owner and on the parents, unless there should be a national or Brit- ish school in the district, or a school within the factory. Sth. The schools to be built and supported out of the Poor's Rates are to be under the management of seven trustees. of whom the only permanent one is to be the clergyman of the parish: two others are to be church- wardens, chosen (when there is a greater number of church-wardens than two) by the clergyman, and the remaining four to be annually appointed by the justices for the place or division. 9th. The Clerical Trustee is to be the permanent chairman of the trustees-to have a casting vote-to have the sole and exclusive superintendence of the reli- 94 THE FACTORY DIUL. gious instruction-to direct the master as to the ieli- Igious instruction to be given-to have the exclusive se- lection of the religious books to be used-to instruct, catechise, and examine the children in the principles of their religion-and in all. this to be perfectly IRRESPON- SIBLE-the inspector of schools being expressly forbid even to inquire into the religious instruction given, to examine the scholars upon it, or to make any report thereon, unless he receives authority for that purpose from the archbishop or bishop. 10th. The master and his assistants are to be appro- ved by the bishop. 1I th. The schools are to be Sunday schools as well as day schools, and the scholars are to attend the Estab- lished Church once every Sunday; but with the follow- ing, exceptions, namely, that a child may be exempted from receiving religious instruction in the day school, from attending the school on the Sunday, and from at- tending the church, if "the parent shall notify to the master that, on the ground of religious objection, he de- sires such scholar not to attend the worship of the Church of England," or to receive religious instruction on week days, or to attend the Church school on Sun- day. 12th. The Church Catechism, and such portions of the Liturgy as the clergyman may select, may be taught for one hour out of three every morning and every af- ternoon. except to the children whose parents shall ob- ject. 13th. A mill-owner, having a school within his own premises, is obliged to have the Church Catechism and Liturgy taught there to any child being a " member of the Church of England." It requires hut little reflection to see that these con- 95 OPPOSITION OF THE METHODISTS. ditions in the bill., when they should have taken full ef- fect, would have drawn all the children of the manu- facturing districts under the exclusive instruction of the clergy of the Established Church, and broken down most, if not all of the day and Sunday schools which Methodists and Dissenters had erected with so much care and expense. It is not to be disguised that the great body of the Wesleyan societies rejoiced that an occasion occurred so opportunely that required their ministers to take a stand in favour of religious liberty and equality, and the pure doctrines of the Reformation; and it is a matter of some surprise, and much congratulation, that the whole body of preachers, without an exception, as far as I heard, proved themselves equal to the emergency. The movement has made them independent of the Establish- ment, and increased their respectability and strength in the eyes of the nation. They believe themselves no longer called on to assist in fighting the battles of a church which is imbued with the corruptions, as they believe, of Roman Catholicism, and has shown itself the mover and supporter of the defeated Factory Edu- cation Bill; yet they do not feel themselves called upon to combine with Dissenters to overthrow the Church as constituted by the English Reformers. They mean to defend their own rights and privileges in particular, and to maintain religious liberty for all; and, if I mistake not. formally and firmly to take their stand as a church among the Evangelical churches of Great Britain. The views here taken of the present status of Methodism are strongly confirmed by Dr. Dixon's sermon on the " Origin, Economy, and Present Position of Methodism." I extract the following specimen: " The times are most ominous. For the last few years a spirit has been abroad most hostile to the principles of the Reformation, and threatening the religious liberties of the country. We seem to be marked out as the first victim of 96 INDICATIONS. 97 So absorbing was this subject, and so remarkable the new position in which the connexion felt itself placed, that it gave tone to almost everything that was done in Conference, and most of the public exercises. In- deed, it constituted the chief ditlhrence between the Conferences of 1842 and 1843, both of which I attended. The official sermion at the latter, by the president, the Rev. John Scott, looked wholly to some great ulterior result; his text comprehended the words, "On this Rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The general discussion of the subject looked towards the Methodist connexion as a "Church ;" and near the close he said, " The Wesleyan body are a true and proper Church, wanting only the this crusade. The peaceful exercise of our religious principles and attempts to do good are suddenly and everywhere opposed and assailed; we are, from the pulpit and the press, denounced as heretics, as well as schismatics; a quiet grave is refused to our dead; and exultation and joy are expressed at the prospect of breaking in upon our tranquil borders and scattering our people. I-low soon and hiow sudldenly are the tables tt rued' But a few fleeting years have passed since we were counted as allies, our assistance sought in the emergency of the Church, and our position allowed to be the very opposite of antagonist. In that dark day we did not forget our Found- er and his principles. A ready, frank', anld willing friendly assistance was accorded. This was not ineffective. If we (lid not hold the balance in our hands, which, in the circumstances, is extremely probable, yet it was in our power greatly to have swelled the flood, and to have rendered resistance a more difficult task. We sought no favour-we asked for no compromise- we expected no sacrifice to be made to us. But Ue had a right to expect peace. War, however, has been proclaimed. This, it will be said by some, is not from authority. It is replied, authority does not even attempt to stop or mitigate its course. No one can mistake the object sought. They are evi- dently designed to maintain the Church, not merely as the Establishment of the nal ion, but as, per se, the Holy Catholic Charch; and that other bodies are no churches at all,but only heretical and schismatical rebels, to be hunt- ed, harassed, beaten down, and overthrown by such weapons as the Con- stitution allows. The issue is with God. In the miean time, we take our position-we trust in the spirit of prayer, meekness, and Christian love, but firmly, resolutely, and unalterably, as a branch of the one true Church of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."-P. 227, 231. VOL. II.-I St6 INDICATIONS. name; and why they should not have this is not to ine sufficiently apparent." This was very significant. com- inrg from the president in his official sermon. Another decisive indication appeared twice in the reading of the morning s rvice, before the sermon of the president on Sabbath morning, and that of the ex-president, Dr. Han, nalh, before the conference on Monday morning: that passage in the service which says, " Send down upon our bishops and curates, and the congregations commit- ted to their charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace," c., the Rev. Mr. Jackson read both times, " Send down upon all thy ministers, and the congregations commit- ted to their charge," c., thus omitting the distinctive acknowledgment that the prelates and their curates of the Establishment were "our bishops and curates ;" and claiming, according to the true genius of the Christian religion, the grace of God to all his ministers, and to the congyrecations committed to their charge. In this change in the reading of the service, which I must pre- sume was done with advice, there was not only an overlooking of the "' bishops and curates," but there was a solemn assumption that the Methodist ministers were ministers of God. To this last point the whole of Dr. Hannah's sermon tended. Having contributed largely to the defeat of the ob- jectionable government measure for the education of the manufacturing districts, both people and preachers felt called upon to devise and support a more compre- hensive system of education, not only for their young morn about to enter the ministry, but also for their peo- ple generally. This is wise, and worthy of commenda- tion. After the adjournment of Conference they opened a subscription of a million of dollars to establish seven hundred day schools within seven years. ftTVrNEITGnT. That the Established Church has entered upon a sys- tematic effort to absorb all church power to herself, there can be no doubt. She openly claims the exclu- sive Divine right of giving religious instruction to all the people, and of performing the office of the priesthood for them; denying that any Protestants in Europe, out of her communion, are in holy orders, or have the right to administer the sacraments. An interesting question arises here, whether the state government is a party to the effort of the Church That the government is a party from conviction that it is their duty to the Church of Christ to aid the Estab- lishment in her plans, cannot be affirmed-perhaps ought to be denied; but that it feels itself called upon to sustain the Establishment in this matter, as a consti- tutional part of the government, and by this means in- directly strengthen itself and the throne, I think cannot be doubted for a moment. It has been found in Eu- rope generally, that the progress of Protestantism and of popular liberty are coincident; and in Great Britain, that the extension of dissent in any form, and of the lib- erty and suffragp of the people, are coincident. Hence there is a steady movement among the sovereigns of Europe to ally themselves again closely with the hie- rarchy, as a part of the machine of government, and thus gradually check the advance of liberal principles, and finally much circumscribe, if not extinguish, the liberties of the people. The history of Christendom clearly shows that the dominion of the hierarchy in the Church, according to high-church principles, is incom- patible with private judgment and political liberty. The same cause which is now leading France to a close alliance with the Romish -hierarchy, is inclining Eng- land to extend the claims and strengthen the power of 99 INDICATIONS. the English hierarchy; and, it is said, moving the King of Prussia to wish that the Protestant churches in his do- minions were one, acting under an episcopal form of gov- ernment, according to the model of the Church of Eng- land, which would establish a hierarchy in Prussia. We have here, perhaps, an explanation of the great increase of Roman Catholicism in Europe generally within a few years past, and the decided approximation of what seems to be the present policy of the Church of England towards Roman Catholicism. With these views agree some momentous and some minor facts which have occurred within the United Kingdom during the last year or two. Take, for in- stance, the legal decisions obtained in the case of Pres- byterian marriages in Ireland, by which a large portion of them in the province of Ulster are declared to be il- legtal, because not performed by ministers of the Estab- lished Church, but by Presbyterian ministers. There are a million of Dissenters in Ireland alone who have enjoyed, without molestation, for more than a century, the privilege of solemnnizing the marriages of their peo- ple. Why is this privilege called in question now, and obsolete statutes made to bear upon it; and this, as has been publicly charged, at the instigation and expense chief- ly of the Dean of Dcrry, a high-toned Puseyite Take the case of the Scotch Church, in which the government determined to enforce the claims of presentation of min- isters to the parishes, over and against the judgment and wishes of the presbyteries and people of the Church of Scotland. The consequence has been the secession of about five hundred of her ablest and best ministers, who have given up their livings and cast themselves upon their people, who have gone with them en masse. There has not been in the whole history of Christianity MOo THE FREE KIRK. a more glorious example of devotion to the cause of re- ligion than this secession from the Established Church of Scotland for conscience' sake. They have given up their whole substance for Christ's sake, and have forsa- ken a church which the government aimed to make subsidiary to its plans. Sir Robert Peel must cast about him and see whether he can now afford to lose this army of martyrs for the unadulterated Gospel of God, since, a year ago, when the queen was in Edinburgh, he declared to the Rev. Dr. Muir, who still remains with the Establishment, that the government could not afford to lose twenty ministers, and such ministers as were mentioned, the number which he was informed would probably secede if the government pressed their measures. This secession firom the Established Church of Scotland, which has constituted itself under the title of the Free Church of Scotland, has the sympathy of a large portion of the British nation, and the admira- tion of more ; and may yet shake the English hierar- chy to its centre, and make the government feel the need of the aid of the Wesleyans, whom it has aliena- ted by the tenacity with which it pressed the odious Factory Bill of Sir James Graham. It is worthy of remark, that collections are allowed in the Wesleyan chapels for the benefit of the Free Protesting Church of Scotland. If we look at little matters near the throne, we shall see the same tendency in the government to favour Pu- seyism. The queen's non-attendance at the Church of Scotland during her visit in 1842 is mentioned in my notice of Edinburgh. Her " conscience" would not al- low her to unite in Presbyterian worship, and therefore she must have a Puseyite to preach for her in the Duke of Buccleuch's dining-room ! Similar indications may 1 2 101 be seen in the service of the Royal Chapel in Lon- don. There are several clergymen who have the honour of being chaplains in ordinary to the queen. Some of them are known to be favourable to Puseyism, and some not; among the last is the Right lion. and Rev. Baptiste Noel, one of the ablest and best men in the Church: he has scarcely ever (if ever) been called upon to preach before her majesty, while the Rev. Theodore Hook, of Leeds, has served repeatedly. It will be remembered this is the gentleman whom the people of Leeds closely connect with the Factory Bill. I may add, what will sound strangely to most of my readers, the Rev. Charles Wesley, D.D., grandson of the Rev. Charles Wesley, is the domestic chaplain to the queen, and is remarkable for his High-churchism. Finally, which seems to be con- clusive of the case, the IRev. Archdeacon Wilberforce, a most prominent Pusevite, is appointed tutor to the Prince of Wales, the future sovereign of England, Ire- land, and Scotland. The views which have been presented are intended to show the new position which the Wesleyan Connex- ion in England appears to be taking in reference to the Church, and the causes which are impelling them there- to. They do not wish to be hostile to the Church, but are certainly indifferent to her fate, as compared with their former zeal in her favour. Whether the connex- ion will enter the lists of dissent actively against the Establishment will depend, I judge, upon the progress of Puseyism. That it has spread, and is still rapidly spreading in the Church, seems to be the general con- victiQn in England; and should it become dominant, then, beyond all doubt, the Wesleyans will be found ar- rayed against thQ Church: not otherwise. In this case, 102 IN'DICATIO.NS. POSITION OF THE WESLEYANS. the fall of the Church as a national establishment would follow; for divided within herself, with the Free Church of Scotland, the Presbyterians and Catholics of Ircl:;nd, the whole body of DIssenters in England, and the Wes- Ieyan Connexion in the three kingdoms combined aga.nst her, it would be impossible for her to stand. Her refor- mation is far preferable to her fall; for the strcngth of England and the weight of Prussia are momentous con- s'derations on the side of Protestantism in the mnighty conflict which it is to wage with Roman Catholicism in the present half century, the result of which will d - termine the moral, religious, and political condition of Europe and America perhaps for many centuries to come. Under the action of the Reform Bill, the position of the Weslevans, in a political point of view, stand .ng, as they do, between the Established Church and the D's- senters, has greatly increased in importance. By that law every male person paying a clear rent of ten pounds per annum is entitled to vote in the elections for Parlia- ment; and the Wesleyans have many such persons in their communion, especially in the manufacturing dis- tricts. In the rural districts the great landed proprie- tors can easily control the elections, but among the man- ufacturing population, where dissent and democracy flourish, the government needs firiends. It has general- ly found them among the Wesleyans, especially the preachers, who, following the example and advice of Mr. Wesley, have been more remarkable for their lov- alty than for their enlightened and independent exam- ination of the political measures of the government. This course of conduct has secured them respect and even influence with the government, and obtained for 103 THE LOWER CLASSES. them various privileges, over which, however, they have to keep a strict watch. But while the political importance of the Wesleyans, and their influence among the middle classes, have been increasing, their hold upon the operatives in the manu- facturing and mining districts, and even upon the agri- cultural labourers, has been gradually loosening. It is to be feared that the glory of primitive Methodism, in this respect, has nearly departed from them. The truth is, that the labouring population of England is sunk in a depth of immorality and ignorance of which we can hardly form any conception in America. An eminent minister told me, in 1842, that within twelve miles of Manchester there was a population of 12,000 operatives in a manufacturing village and its vicinity, among whom there was only one small chapel, and that not well at- tended. " At least," said I, " the chapels in Manchester and the large manufacturing towns are crowded with the operatives " " No," he replied, " few of them at- tend regularly ;" and this, he said, was the case in Dis- senting, as well as Methodist chapels. He remarked that Methodism had acquired a population of its own, which it had greatly elevated, and which filled the chapels and supported the work; but that the real work- ing people seldom attended any place of worship, but spent the Sunday at the taverns or news-rooms, in vis- iting each other, or in attending lectures on Socialism and kindred topics.t I found the prevailing sentiment in private circles to be that the factory system, under the conditions in A " Committee for guarding our Privileges" is appointed by the Confer- ence yearly, consisting of about fifty ministers and as many prominent laymen. t Rev. B. N., a distinguished clergyman of the Established Church, made the same remark to me with reference to the lower orders of the population of London. 104 THE LABOURING CLASSES. 0 which it exists in England, is destructive of the minds, souls, and bodies of the operatives, while it creates a moneyed aristocracy more proud and imperious to the poorest classes than the titled nobility. Different opin- ions from this, I know, are published in various quar- ters. I have it, not from newspapers, reports, or plac- ards of either or any party, but from the well-consid- ered expressions of intelligent and conscientious men, who have the opportunity to judge, and have no interest in deceiving or being deceived. Two reasons may be assigned for the diminution of Wesleyan influence among the labouring classes. The first grows out of the corn-law agitation. From the very nature of the case, the operatives desire the repeal of the corn-laws, believing them to be the chief cause of their distress and poverty; and, in their ignorant earnestness, they are alienated in feeling from all who do not espouse their views and aid their cause. The Methodist ministers, always distinguished for their loy- alty, have generally kept aloof from exciting political questions; and their peaceable policy is construed by the corn-law leaguers into hostility to the interests of the operatives; a construction that derives plausibil- ity from the fact that the majority of the Dissenting ministers in the kingdom take an active part in the measures of the league. The position of the Wesleyan preachers is thus a difficult, and perhaps a painful one. That they are generally opposed to the corn-law agita- tion cannot be questioned; but it is just as unquestion- able, whatever their measures may be, that they are, in heart and purpose, true friends of the labouring classes. Under God, they have done more for the ele- vation of these classes than all other human agencies; and they should never be separated from them. 105 106 The second reason referred to is the general eleva- tion of the Wesleyan body in wealth and respectabil- ity, a necessary result of their superior moral train- ing. But this progressive improvement has led to the gradual adoption, both among preachers and people, of habits and customs unfavourable to a direct influence over the lower classes. Among these I may notice the general introduction of the system of renting and selling pews in their houses of worship, a system which, bv whatever arguments it may be defended, cannot but tend to produce the very result I am now discussing, viz., the exclusion of the poorest classes from the house of God, and, of course, their alienation from the Church itself. I cannot but believe that the barrier which sep- arates the free seats from the pews, in some of the English Wesleyan chapels, is a barrier also against the hearts and sympathies of the poor. The increase of wealth among the Wesleyans I have spoken of as a natural result; it as naturally leads to the formation of a ministry adapted to the altered state of society. WVhile the successors of the preachers who formerly sought out colliers and miners are now faith- fully preaching the Gospel to their well-established soci- eties, the Primitive Methodists, a body already num- bering, perhaps, 0,000 members, are principally per- forming the very work, as far as it is performed at all, which Wesleyan Methodism once accomplished. The same result, as to the character of our people, will probably take place in America. It is the order of God's Providence that, when a church is established anion, the humblest class of the people, they shall be raised to the level of civilization; not that the church shall be degraded to theirs. But it is not necessary that our church, either in England or America, should MOM! MISSION'S. lose forever the glorious office of " preaching the Gos- pel to the poor," in order to keep and cherIsh the chil- dren of those who have grown up into affluence under her fostering care. She ought to do the one, and not to leave the other undone. She should have a vell-or- ganized system of home missions, employing her preach- ers, perhaps with helpers, under her admirable itin- erant organization, more specially than heretofore, in the special duty of secking out the poor, the outcast, the degraded, in the lanes and alleys of our crowded cities, among the masses of our manufacturing towns, in the wild regions of our mines and collieries, and among the '-highways and hedges" throughout the land. Something of the sort is already in operation in two of our cities; I tust that the next General Con- ference will mature and ordain a system that may be applicable to the condition and wants of the whole country. I have before observed that the Wesleyans have al- ways been remarkable for their loyalty to the govern- ment and friendship for the Church. There were three reasons for this: 1st. They believed it to be the duty of the state to provide for the public observance of rc- ]lgion and the instruction of the people in righteousness. 2d. They considered the Church of England, in conncx- ion with the State, to be the bulwark of Protestantism. 3d. They judged Church and State to be so intimately connected, that they must stand or fall together. Their warm friendship for the Church certainly has been much abated by her failure to fulfil her high commission to instruct the people in righteousness, which created the necessity for their own existence and action; and their confidence must have been greatly impaired with 107 P'OSITIUN' oF 4EVTH1D1SM. respect to her being -the bulwark of Protestantism," when the Conference ventured to say to the people, in their Pastoral Address of 1843, that " her title to be so regarded has, of late, been grievously shaken. Opin- ions concerning the insufficiency of Scripture as the sole authoritative and universal rule of faith and practice, the exclusive validity of Episcopal ordination, and the necessarily saving efficacy of the Sacraments, which can only be distinguished from Popery by a practised observer, and which, in their necessary consequences, lead directly to Popery, have been revived when they were almost extinctt, have spread with fearful rapidity, and are now held by a large number of the established clergy. As a natural result of such a state of opinion, an exclusive and persecuting spirit has appeared ill many parts of the land." If to this we add the bitter denunciation and persecution oln the part of the Church towards the Wesleyans as well as Dissenters, we shall be inclined to suppose some farther abatement in the respect of the Methodists for the Establishment. The following passage from a note in Doctor Dixon's ser- non on the death of Nlr. Galland is pregnant with meaning, both with respect to the past and the present One thing is evident, viz., it is now too late to enter- tain the idea of amalgamnation [with the Establishlrent] We must contemplate all our duties, interests, and insti- tutions, under the impression that we are a Church of Christ. But a church cannot be merely spiritual; it has its platform on earth ; is associated with other churches; and stands by the side of the institutions (f the State; it is under great obligations in all these rela- tions, and is bound to act on the principle of being ' tihe friend of all, and the enemy of none."' The sai=- writer, in his recent able work on the 108 b Present Position of Methodism," says, "1 Perilous times have overtaken us; we need feel no surprise if our cause be subjected to a fiery ordeal. Why should we either hide the truth from ourselves, or hesitate to an- nounce it' If this Church (the Methodist), in connex- ion with the other parties referred to (i. e., other evan- gelical bodies), do not exert itself for the preservation of the truths of the Gospel, there is every probability that the nation must, ere long, fall again under the do- minion of falsehood and superstition." He then recounts the features of the Puseyite movement, and adds, "' We say all these considerations lead us to the deep convic- tion that the maintenance of the truth of God and the liberties of his people rest in other hands than those of the Established Church, except in the case of a very small remnant who refuse to bow the knee to this new incarnation of Baal !" All this indicates an inevitable tendency in the Wesleyan connexion to come " into di- rect and palpable collision" with the Establishment, as Doctor Dixon suggests. And to the unexcited and distant observer it appears that this result would imme- diately take place, were it not for the loyal apprehen- sion which pervades the minds of the Wesleyan minis- ters and her principal members, that the fall of the Church would involve a change in the structure of the government, and the introduction of Republican prin- ciples. Hence, whenever they have deemed it their duty to oppose any measure of government, as the late Factory Bill, they have made their opposition separately fromn that of Dissenters, lest they might be identified with them. The question is, Can they continue to hold their insulated position, receiving from one side the fire of the Established Church, and from the other that of Dissenters Well might Doctor Dixon say, " What VOL. 11.-K 109 DR. Dl.XON. 110 rOSITION OF METHODISM. may be the ultimate position of our community it is im- possible to fbresee." Since writing the above, I have noticed the following passage in a peti- tion presented to the House of Lords in behalf of the Scotch Establishment, and headed by the names of Richard Reece and AJnbez Bunting, D.D.: " The distressing and injurious rcsults of a final refusal of the Legislature to afford the desired relief . . . will not be confined to Scotland and its Church, but must eventually lead to consequences which will endanger the stability of other churches, and weaken the other Protestant institutions of the Em- pire; inasmuch as, in the opinion of your petitioners, it will be impossible to defend, on Scriptural grounds, the Establishment principle itself, if it once be- come plain and unquestionable that the advantages of an Establishment, whatever those advantages may be, will only be conceded by the state on the condition that a church so specially countenanced . . . shall purchase its dis- tinctive honours and privileges by the necessary sacrifice of its spiritual lhb- erties, and the violation of its spiritual allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ." The crisis is over ; the Scotch Church was sacrificed. Can the Establish- ment principle now be defended on Scriptural grounds by Wesleyan Methodists I find also the following declarations in a "s Letter to Rev. Hugh M'Neile, byRev. Wm.Vevers: " Forbearance has its limits. Contumely has its bounds. It is possible-it is probable, considering the anti-Protestant principles of many of the clergy, and the semi-popish character of their teaching, that the Wesleyans. impelled, as they have hitherto been restrained, by Protestant principles, may be led lo unite with Dissenters against the Church; and, in that case, the moral influence which will he brought to bear upon the Es- tablishnient, solely on account of its anti-Protestant character, will constitute a phalanx which cannot be resisted." These extracts give additional proof that the inferences which I have drawn from existing facts in regard to the present tendencies of Methodism are correct, in the estimation of our British brethren themselves, whose lan- guage as quoted is stronger than any that I have used in stating mny own views. OTBAZ CHAPTER VII. LONDON TO MANCHESTER. Outbreak in the Manufacturing Districts.-Rapid Spread of the Discontent. -Mobs.-Queen's Proclamation.-Departure from London.-London and Birmingham Railway.-Biriiingham.-Wretched Appearance of the Oper- atives.-Manchester.-Mob-law.-Chartists.-Their Proclamation.-The Workmen.-Messrs. Wood Westhead's Factory.-Suppression of the Mob. DURING my stay in London, in August, ]842, the ex- tens.ve riots of that year commenced in the manufac- turing, districts. The London papers were filled with accounts of disturbances, turn-outs, attacks on mills, and combats, with loss of life, between the operatives and the military. The movement commenced on the eighth with a turn-out of spinners, weavers, colliers, labourers, and work-people of all descriptions, at Staleybridge, who marched to the several mills, stopped the engines, and turned out the hands. This mob was said to be about 5000 in nunmber, about one third of whom were females. They carried a banner, inscribed, " The men of Staleybridge will follow wherever danger points out the way. They that perish by the sword are better than they that perish of hunger." They proceeded to other towns in the neighbourhood, everywhere stopp.ng the mills and causing the operatives to join them. On the next day the movement commenced in Manches- ter, and, indeed, throughout the whole of the manufac- turing districts. So rapidly did the insurrection spread, that many of the journals declared the plan had been long maturing for a simultaneous outbreak. Said the Manchester Guardian of the 13th, " Those who look III SPREAD OF DISCONTENT. upon this outbreak as a mere turn-out for wages, an at- tempt to resist a reduction of a half-penny per piece in weaving calico, and who suppose that it might be brought to a termination by acceding to the present demand for an advance of wages, fall into a mistake which is exceedingly dangerous. What is now taking place has not come upon us by surprise. We know that it has been agitated for several months past. In- deed, we know, on very good authority, that a leading Chartist, one of the very few men of considerable prop- erty who belong to that body, said, about two months ago, to a gentleman with whom he was conversing on the state of the country, ' Wait till August, and you will then see what will happen.' Disguise it as we may, the present movement is a rising against the government and the law. Call it by what name we please, it is re- ally an insurrection." Other papers considered the outbreak as the natural fruit of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and even charged the leaders of that body with having designed insurrec- tion from the beginning. Of course this charge was groundless. One thing is certain, however, that a deep sense of wrong pervaded the mass of the operatives in the manufacturing districts, and when the spirit of re- sistance first showed itself, it spread like wildfire among them. There was suffering-poverty-despair among the wretched masses of the population, and it is not hard to rouse such men. But the results showed that there was no conspiracy, no well-arranged plot of re- bellion, no determination to destroy life and property. Few acts of violence were committed on the part of the mob, other than closing the mills and causing work to cease in every quarter. So successful were they in this, that within a week " the great seat of the cotton manus 112 facture of England, instead of presenting its usual as- pect of busy industry, exhibited the unusual spectacle of empty workshops, unproductive machinery, and bod- ies of workmen roaming about the streets in listless idleness." The first demonstration was made in Manchester on Tuesday, 9th of August. On that day many mills were attacked by the mob, and compelled to stop. In one of these attacks the inmates of the mill threw down stones, pieces of iron, and othei missiles from the roof, with such fatal effect that several persons were hurt, and a young girl, it is said, was killed on the spot. The riots continued for several days, but a strong police force was organized, and troops poured in from various quarters, so that all fear of danger from the mobs speedily subsided. But they continued the strike, and still met in large bod- ies, demanding " a fair day's wage for a fair day's work," and effectually intimidating any of the operatives who might be disposed to work from entering the mills. Meantime, disturbances had broken out in almost ev- ery part of Yorkshire and Lancashire, as well as in the Staffordshire potteries, and among the collieries. Some of them were attended with the most lamentable results. At Preston the mills were. stopped, and the mob made such threatening demonstrations that the most energet- ic measures were taken to disperse them. After the reading of the riot act, the mob, instead of dispersing, commenced throwing stones at the military and police. At last, the word was given to fire, and it was supposed that twelve or fifteen persons were wounded, some of them mortally. A similar tragedy was enacted at Blackburn, where the rioters attempted to rescue some prisoners on their way to the barrack-yard under a strong military guard. They made a rush at the coach K2 113 MOBS. 4QUEEN's PROCLAMATION. and hurled a shower of stones upon the soldiers, when the order to fire was given, and immediately obeyed. A fine young woman, who was present, was struck by two balls, and said to be mortally wounded. Manv others were seriously injured. These events greatly inflamed the hatred of the rioters, though they also damped their courage. Of course such events as these were not viewed with- out alarm and distress in London. In the city itself large meetings of Chartists were held, and bodies of them marched the streets at night with the avowed ob- ject of showing sympathy for their brethren in the man- ufacturing dIstricts, and also of " keeping the troops at home." But the active efforts of the magistrates and police soon put an end to these meetings and marchilngs in the metropolis. On Saturday night, Augrust 13th, the following proclamation appeared in a supplement to the London Gazette: " By the Queen-A Proclamation. "VICTORIA R. -Whereas in divers parts of Great Britain great multitudes of lawless and disorderly per- sons have lately assembled themselves together in a riotous and tumultuous manner, and have, with force and violence, entered into certain mines, mills, manu- factories, and other places. and have, by threats and in- timidation, prevented our good subjects therein employ- ed from following their usual occupations and earning their livelihood: We, therefore, being duly sensible of the mischievous consequence which must inevitably en- sue, as well to the peace of the kingdom as to the lives and properties of our subjects, fi-om such wicked and il- legal practices, if they go unpunished; and being firm- ly resolved to cause the laws to be put in execution for 114 PROCLAMATION. the punislment of such offenders, have thought fit, by the advice of our Privy Council, to issue th's procla- rnaton, hereby strictly commanding all justices of the peace, sheriffs, under-sheriffs. and all other civil officers whatsoever, within the United Kingdom, that they do use their utmost endeavours to discover, apprehend, and bring to justice the persons concerned in the riotous proceedings before mentioned. And, as a farther in- ducement to discover the said offenders, we do hereby promise and declare that any person or persons who shall dIscover and apprehend, or cause to be discover- ed and apprehended, the authors, abetters, or perpetra- tors of any of the outrages above mentioned, so that they, or any of them, may be duly convicted thereof, shall be entitled to the sumn of pound;50 for each and every person who shall be convicted, and shall also receive our most gracious pardon for the said offence in case the person making such discovery as aforesaid shall be liable to be prosecuted for the same. " Given at our court at Windsor, this 13th day of Au- gust, in the year of our Lord 1842, and in the sixth year of our reign. God save the Queen." On the next day (Sunday), 700 of the Coldstream Guards, with some artillery, were despatched from London to Manchester by railway; and, on the same day 600 men of the Fifty-eighth Regiment arrived in that place, so that there was now a strong military force, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, in the heart of the in- fected district. I determined to hasten my departure from London in order to visit the manufacturing districts during the ex- citemnent, and left the city in the train for Birmingham at eleven o'clock on the morning of August 16. It was no5 A PLEASANT DAY. a sweet day, and I felt cheered and enlivened by a sight of the green fields and the comparatively clear sky, af- ter so long a confinement to the murky atmosphere of London. I say comparatively clear, for the brilliant skies of my native land are unknown in England. This day gave the nearest approach to it that I ever saw there; and it was very much like the delightful days of our Indian summer, when the heavens are veiled in a dim, gauze-like haze. It would be impossible to make an Englishman believe the truth in regard to our bright skies, our glorious autumnal sunsets, our brilliant moon- light, any more than he will believe you when you tell him of the majestic floods of the Ohio and the Mississip- pi. Perhaps, indeed, he ought not to be blamed for his incredulity if he has never wandered from his native isl- and; for how can he there form any conception of bright skies, or mighty rivers, or primeval forests As for the cities in England, the atmosphere is gen- erally so dense, and so loaded with smoke, that you cannot, from any elevation, obtain an extensive view. From the dome of St. Paul's, in London, you can gen- erally only see the streets and houses near at hand, the distant parts of the city, in every direction, being hidden by the smoke. It is this same sooty coal smoke, per- vading the whole atmosphere, that begrimes the build- ings, and gives the city the gloomy and even dismal as- pect that is so insupportable to a stranger, and which would infallibly give him the blues but for the busy life that animates the vast hive of men around him. The London and Birmingham Railway is constructed in a style of elegance and durability almost unknown in America. The station-houses are not only strongly, but neatly and tastefully built. The arrangements for taking up and setting down passengers are also excel- 116 RAILWVAY CARS. lent, though more time is necessarily taken up with this matter than on our best-conducted railways, owing to the fact that the cars have three doors in the side in- stead of one at each end. The cars are divided into three classes. Those of the first class are far more splendid than is common among us. They are divided into three separate apartments, after the manner of the cars thrown aside in America some years ago, and well padded, glazed, and carpeted. This class of cars, on all the English railways, is inaccessible to the middle and lower classes, owing to the high rates of fare. We paid between London and Birmingham thirty shillings each, about double the rate between Philadelphia and New- York. The second class of cars is far inferior to those in use on our roads at home, being generally without cushions or glass, so that they are exceedingly uncom- fortable. The third class are nothing but boxes, afford- ing standing room for the human cattle that cannot af- ford to pay for a better place. Leaving the first-class carriages out of the account, the accommodations for travellers are vastly better on American than English railways. The country was indeed beautiful. It is not the gar- den of England, but yet the cultivation seemed to be almost perfect. It is a gently-rolling country, with but little water, hardly any, except small serpentine canals winding amid the pastures, fields, and hedges. The cattle, horses, sheep, and every living thing that feeds on grass, and can be sold for money, were in the finest condition. The grass had a deep luxuriance that is rarely seen in America. It seemed like a thick tufted carpet, and the lazy sheep, sleek, fat cattle, and well- conditioned horses, like figures wrought upon it. The swells of land were crowned with the golden grain. 1117 THE COUNTRY. Lines of green hedge diversified the picture. Ranges of elms and groups of other trees abounded everywhere, giving the whole scene the appearance of a rich pleas- ure-ground, delightfully varied with light and shade. I remarked this peculiarity of rural landscapes on the Continent; it is even more strikingly characteristic of England. I reiterate the conviction before expressed, that our farmers at home would not only add to the beauty of their farms, but to their productiveness, by planting rows of trees along the fences, and scattering single trees and groups among the fields4. They would contribute to protect the soil from drought, and afford grateful shelter to the cattle during the summer heats; and, more than this, they would help to give us, what we certainly have not now. beautiful agricultural land- scapes. It was a lovely journey, indeed, on that fine summer's day, from London to Birminglham. Even in the deep cuts of the road, when the landscape was shut out, the slopes on either side were prettily sodded with grass, and hedges were beginning to spring tip on their sum- mits. But the fields-the rich, luxuriant fields-what pictures of comfort and happiness they were! One could believe the boast of England to be the happiest and best of nations -while gazing on these sweet fields, the image of repose, content, and plenty. And yet we were passing through these Arcadian scenes from a metrop- olis where thousands were in want and almost in re- bellion, to a district all teeming with life the wretchedest and most unhappy, to a district where despairing men, goaded on by starving women, were jeoparding their lives in hopeless, objectless, criminal insurrection! Such are the contrasts which England everywhere presents. As we approached the iron and coal region, the ever- 118 lasting smoke again appeared, loading the atmosphere with its dense vapour. As we came nearer B.rmingham the sky was almost hidden. Arriving in the busy town, we took lodgings at the Queen's Hotel, wh'ch turned out to be a good, comfortable house. We spent the re- mainder of the day and part of the next looking around in this great toyskop of the world, and would have re- mained longer to examine its workshops. but that they were all sIlent and deserted. The miserable population thronged the streets, walking about in their wvretched- ness apparently without any object. Many were gath- ered in groups about the taverns and g.'n-shops, con- versing anxIously, their pale, haggard faces and atten- uated frames attesting their assertions that want had driven the m to combination. Women and children, ragged, dirty, and emaciated, sat in the doors of comfort- less dwellincs, with despair written upon their wretch- ed countenan es. The whole appearance of the people satisfied me of the correctness of a remark made to me by a gentleman fiom Yorkshire, whom I met in London: Sir," said le, " the mob have not the physical power to resst, even if they were well organized and had skil- ful leaders. Three years of want, added to the slow but sure hereditary deterioration of a factory popula- tion, has deprived them of the physical strength neces- sary to resistance ; a single squadron of horse would cut 20,000 of them to pieces and not lose a man." This fact, of the deterioration of the factory population, ap- pears to be indubitable, if the reports made to Parlia- ment are to be trusted. When the government are seeking recruits for the Guards, they never take a man from among the operatives in the manufacturing dis- tricts; so, at least. I was informed by a gentleman in Birmingham, and I found the statement confirmed in 119 BIRMINGHAM. MANCH ESTER. the Sanitary Reports. My own eyesight was proof enough for me that, in Birmingham at least, the opera- tive Englishman is a degenerate being in point of size, activity, and physical strength. The appearance of the town is unprepossessing. There are few public buildings with any pretensions to beauty. The mnodern-built houses are generally small, and appear to be mere shells, run up for immediate use, without any eye to comfort or durability. The brick used here is of the meanest kind, and they are laid rudely enough. In none of our American towns of yesterday are as poor houses and streets to be seen as in Birmingham. I have to acknowledge the politeness of the Rev. Mr. Ingle, whose intelligent conversation and kind atten- tions in Birmingham were very pleasant to us. We left the place in the cars for Manchester on the 17th, and in an hour reached Wolverhampton. The whole region is filled with smoke from countless chimneys scat- tered over the fields, where engines arc employed to raise the coal from the mines. Approaching MIanches- ter, we found the air less heavily charged with vapour than usual, as all the mills in the town were stopped. The town had been under mob-law from Tuesday until Friday of the preceding week. The magistrates, either fearing or sympathizing with the rioters fiom Ashton and Staleybridge, who, as I have before said, first appeared at Manchester on the 9th, foolishly per- mitted them to enter the town upon their promise to conduct themselves peaceably. Of course this promise was not kept, and mob-law was the result, for some days at least, in Manchester. But the arrival of so many troops strengthened the municipal authorities, and before the close of the week many arrests took place; 120 though the mob, by dividing their force, were enabled to prevent the resumption of work in any of the mills, without coming into collision with the police. On Mondav, 15th, the town was comparatively quiet, but not a single mill was at work. On Tuesday, the day before our arrival, the Chartists advertised a meeting and procession, which, however, was prevented by the police. Several small meetings were held, however,in and about the town, where resolutions, proclamations, etc., were prepared, to be circulated among the people. In these meetings the Chartists had the majority, and were enabled to give the whole strike a Chartist col- ouring. The object of the Chartist organization is to obtain an entirely new constitution for the British Em- pire-an outline of which they have circulated for a year or two, called the People's Charter-by which universal suffrage, vote by ballot, and other features of pure democracy shall be established as the law of the land. A large number of the operatives belong to this body, and they have succeeded in banding many of them by an oath never to resume labour until the Peo- ple's Charter is recognised. Another of their favourite measures is to run upon the banks for gold. Placards were posted all over Manchester, some of them over the queen's proclamation, of the following tenour: " Run for gold ! Labour is suspended! Public credit is sha- ken! Labour is worthless! Run for gold! Every sovereign is now worth thirty shillings. Paper cannot be cashed. Run, middle-class men, trades, Odd Fellows, sick clubs, and money clubs, to the saving's-banks and all banks, for gold ! gold! gold 1" The Chartist leaders assumed a bolder bearing on the 16th than at any time before, but yet enjoined upon all their followers the clo- sest observance of public order. They knew well that VOL. II.-L 121 CRMARTISTS. CHARTIST PROCLAMATION. acts of violence would put an end at once to the agita- tion by giving the authorities a pretext to fire upon them, as had been the case at Preston and Blackburn. It was asserted, indeed, that the authorities were desi- rous to entrap them in this way, but certainly such ma- lignity could hardly exist among intelligent men in Old England. That the lower officials, however, were not free from it, I had evidence myself in conversation with one of them. Stopping near one of the stations on the evening of the 17th, I asked a special constable what was the condition of the town. " Pretty quiet, sir," said he. " Are the operatives likely to commit any acts of violence " " We are only afraid not," said he; " that is all we are waiting for, and then we should shoot them down." In general, as far as I could learn, the movements of the public authorities were sufficiently forbearing. I read a long proclamation from the Chartists to the people, that was posted up in almost every street in Manchester, from which I give some extracts: "THIE EXECUTIVE COMMMITTEE OF TIiE NATIONAL CHART- IST ASSOCIATION TO THE PEOPLE: "Brother Chartists, "The great political truths which have been agitated during the last half century have at length aroused the degraded and insulted white slaves of England to a sense of their duty to themselves, their children, and their country. Tens of thousands have flung down their implements of labour. Labour must no longer be the common property of masters and rulers. Intelli- gence has beamed upon the mind of the bondsman, and he has been convinced that all wealth, comfort, and produce, everything valuable, useful, and elegant, have sprung from the palm of his hand; he feels that his cot- 122 tage is empty, his back thinly clad, his children bread- less, himself hopeless; that undue riches, luxury, and gorgeous plenty may be heaped in the palaces of the taskmasters, and flooded into the granaries of the 01- pressor. Nature, God, and Reason have condemned this inequality, and in the thunder of a people's voice it must perish forever. He knows that labour, the real property of society, the sole origin of accumulated prop- ertv, the first cause of all national wealth, is not pos- sessed of the same legal protection which is given to those lifeless effects, the houses, ships, and machinery which labour has alone created. L-le knows that, if la- bour has no protection, wages cannot be upheld or regulated until every workman of twenty-one years ot age, and of sane mind, is on the same political level as his employer . . . therefore, we have solemnly sworn that the golden opportunity now within our grasp shall not pass away fruitless; . . . that we shall never re- sume labour until . . . the enactment of the People's Charter. "Englishmen! The blood of your brothers reddens the streets of Preston and Blackburn, and the murder- ers thirst for more. Be firm, be courageous, be mcni. " Countrymen and brothers ! Centuries may roll on, as they have fleeted past, before such universal action may again be displayed; we have made the cast for liberty, and we must stand, like men, the hazard of the die. . . . While you are peaceful, be firm; while you are orderly, make all be so likewise; and while vou look to the law, remember that you had no voice inl making it, and are therefore slaves to the will, the law, and the price of your masters." Other placards of the same character were freely dis- tributed through the town. During the time of my stay 123 CHiARTISTS. in Manchester, the mob was obviously under the control of the Chartist leaders, although the mass of them cared nothing about the Charter. Indeed, they hardly knew what to ask, although they knew very well what they suffered. The magistrates, many of whom were mem- bers of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and whose sympa- thies were therefore with the distressed people, were unwilling to proceed to extremities against them ; but when it was found that the Chartists were inflaming their minds continually, and that acts of violence were committed daily, they could not but act energetically. Arrests were frequent while I remained in the place, but the town was generally quiet. As at Birmingham, the operatives, men. women, and children, thronged the streets, and crowded about the public houses, present- ing the same wretched appearance of poverty and ill health. A cheerful countenance would have been start- ling amid that mass of misery. Yet they were not rag- ged, as the poor that I have seen in Ireland; but with clothes threadbare, patched and darned, showing that their habits were not always improvident. Some few of the smaller establishments, such as dye- works and machine-shops, resumed work on Thurs- day, 14th, but only one cotton factory was open. Un- derstanding, however, that the large mill of Messrs. Wood and Westhead had commenced running, I visit- ed it with the permission of Mr. Wood. This is an extensive establishment for the manufacture of fringes and trimmings, and has sustained a high reputation for the excellence of its arrangements. An attentive and polite foreman conducted us through the establishment, and answered all our inquiries freely and sensibly. I was highly gratified with the neatness and cleanliness of the rooms and machinery, and somewhat surprised 124 MIttS. THE RIOTS SUPPRESSED. at the appearance of the operatives, who were gener- ally decent, cheerful, and healthy. The contrast be- tween them and the wretched masses that I had seen in the streets was so striking, that I could not refrain from asking our conductor to explain it. "The expla- nation is simple enough," said he; "our people are well tAken care of, have not been out of work, and have been regularly paid. Besides, we allow no persons of imnmoral character or evil habits to work in the mill. The people generally are respectable in their conduct, and comfortable in their circumstances." I found, on farther inquiry, that the operatives in this mill had not relinquished work of their own accord, but had been driven into the strike by the mob, as was the case at many other factories in Manchester and elsewhere. In Messrs. Wood and Westhead's factory a day and Sun- day school are regularly kept up, and well attended by the children. On the whole, our visit to this excellent establishment was highly gratifying. Doubtless, at another season, I might find many others through the manufacturing district equally deserving of praise; but I am constrained to say that, according to all the in- formation I could gather on the spot, they form the ex- ceptions, not the rule. The issue of the strife between the operatives and the authorities could not long be doubtful. A week of idleness brought to their senses the ignorant masses that had been involved by Chartist leaders in this sense- less insurrection. The alternative was submission or starvation. The ringleaders of the mobs in various places were arrested; the feeble bonds that held the mob together were sundered; the mills were gradually opened, and in a few weeks work was generally resu- med throughout the manufacturing districts. Such L 2 125 CAUSE OF THE OUTBREAK. must ever be the result of an insurrection of the lower classes in England. A different story would be told could the interests of the middle classes be united with those of the lower in a struggle against the aristoc- racy. It would require no prophet to foretel the issue of such a contest. The causes of this outbreak have been already par- tially developed. The immediate occasion of it was a reduction of wages at Ashton; but this was only an occasion; the real evil lay far deeper. The commer- cial revulsions in America caused a vast diminution of the demand for British goods from '39 to '42; great depression ensued throughout the manufacturing dis- tricts; many failures occurred among the mill-owners, throwing some 40 or 50,000 operatives entirely out of employment; while, at the same time, the necessaries of life were higher than they had been for years. Here was inflammable material enough; Chartist and Social- ist doctrines increased it; it only needed the lighting of a match, and the explosion came. 126 SHEFFIELD RAILWAY. CHAPTER VIII. MANCHESTER TO NEWCASTLE. Sheffield Railway.-Wesleyan Conference.-Mr. Montgomery.-Hull.-Mr. Cookman .-Great Thornton-street Chapel.-Placards.-Worship .-York. -The Minster.-Law Courts.-Wigs.-Lord D)enman.-Cathedral Bells ringing for the Races.-The Clergy.-The Stage-coach.-Newcastle.-A Coal-mine.-The Miners.-" Honest John." ON leaving Manchester in the cars for Sheffield, I de- termined, for the sake of experiment, to try the second class of cars. One trial was enough. The carriage was fitted up with seats of plank, uncushioned, and was without glass or curtains at the sides; altogether as un- comfortable an affair as one would wish to travel in; far different from the neat, cheerful, cushioned, and car- peted cars that are used on our American railways. It was divided, like the carriages of the first class, into three compartments, each containing, I think, seats for ten persons. Our compartment was full. Were I dis- posed to give specimens of the decency of travellers on English railways, I might make an edifying chapter on the subject. It is enough to say that, in point of intelli- gence and breeding, I never saw so low a company in a car on an American railway. Let it be recollected, too, that this was the second class car. What sort of humanity it was that was huddled in the third class, standing unprotected in the rude box of a carriage pro- vided for them, must be left to conjecture. In and around the different villages through which we passed-Oldham, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, c.-wc saw crowds of operatives, men and women, 127 14CO SHEFFIELD. roaming about in idleness. At Normanton we changed cars. Several railways concentrate at this point, and about fifty trains pass it daily. In a few hours we reached Sheffield. The place was quiet, no difficulties having occurred among the operatives here. I spent a day in looking through the factories; but, as they have been so frequently described, I need not detain the reader with any account of them. In the following year I again visited Sheffield in order to be present at the session of the British Wesleyan Conference, and found a cordial welcome in the family of Mr. Mt., whom I had seen in New-York and Philadelphia. Of the Conference I have spoken in another place, and also of the Wesleyan Proprietary School at Sheffield, to which I paid a most gratifying visit. On the day of my departure from Sheffield, I had the pleasure of dining at Mr. J.'s, with a delightfiil com- pany, among whom were Dr. Newton and Mr. Mont- gomery, the poet. Conference business required that the company should sit down to dinner early, and it chanced to be before Mr. Montgomery arrived. As soon as he was seen through the window approaching the door, Mr. J. rose and went out to meet him, and led him into the room. All rose and stood while he passed round the table shaking each one by the hand, and then took his seat with Miss N. between him and myself. The conversation was inteprupted but a mo- ment; and the intelligence, vivacity, and piety of the poet instantly diffused a glow and elevation of thought and feeling which true, consecrated genius only can in- spire. The topics were various-grave, gay, amusing, sometimes witty-but always marked with great pro- priety, and often with deep piety. He is now quite advanced in years, and nervous, his health not being good; yet, in company, he is very cheerful. He is exceedingly easy and agreeable in manner, and his whole bearing very gentlemanly. No man, in any community, was ever more respected; and he enters into all the great benevolent movements in his vicinity, and generally presides, at least once a year, at one of the principal missionary meetings of the Wesleyans in Shetlield. He is a truly religious man, the son of a MLoravian missionary who died in the West Indies. Some time ago, there was a proposition to reestablish the mission on the same island; and, out of respect to TMr. Montgomery, all classes contributed, and the funds were immediately raised. He has a small income from his works, and a small pension from the government; and thus passes his days in sweet retirement, coming forth only to countenance the cause of religion and benevo- lence, or to shine upon his friends. I was obliged to take my leave of him and the company around him ere the dinner-party broke up. Five hours in the railroad cars brought us from Sheffield to Hull. It had not formed part of our plan to visit Hull, but a letter from the aged father of our own lamented COOKMAN, inviting us to visit him, was not to be resisted. I had also the honour of an invita- tion to assist in the services at the opening of the Great Thornton-street Wesleyan Chapel. We had hardly taken our rooms at the Victoria Hotel, when Mir. Holmes, one of the stewards of the circuit, called on us, and kind- ly invited us to his house. Mr. Cookman shortly after called, and extended to us a similar invitation. I may once for all express my admiration of the hospitality of our friends in every part of England. Wherever we were known as Methodist preachers, we were wel- comed with the same cordial kindness as we should 129 HiULL. CHAPEL AT IILtLL. have been in any part of our own country. The Wesley- an feeling we found to be one in England and America. On Sunday morning we attended service at the new chapel. After the reading of prayers, in the Church of England forms, I preached to a large and attentive con- gregation. I have remarked elsewhere, that, in gen- cral, the assemblies in churches and chapels in England are not so crowded as with us; but on special occa- sions, such as the session of Conference, missionary an- niversaries, and the opening of new chapels, large masses are collected. Every means is employed to give no- tice of the proceedings and attract attention; some, in- deed, which appeared very odd to us at first. I was surprised, for instance, in passing to and from church, to observe large placards upon the corners of the streets, stating the order of services at the opening of the chapel, and giving, in large letters, the names of the ministers who were to perform them. The placard had precise- ly the appearance of a playbill. I find that this mode of publishing religious meetings prevails generally amnong the Weslcyans and Dissenters in England, but not among Episcopalians. Another peculiarity struck ime quite as disagreeably. Eulogy of pulpit perform- ancles appeared to be common, both from the pulpit itself and in private circles. Doubtless personal ac- knowledgments may sometimes be made for a good slrrmon, with the best feelings and motives; but it strikes me that it is a custom " more honoured in the breach than in the observance." The congregation at Great Thornton-street presented a highly respectable appearance, and the worship was serious and solemn. I was especially pleased with the singing, which was not a mere performance by the choir, but a universal swelling up of praise from the whole vast 130 assembly, assisted and sustained by the toncs of a pow- erful organ. The congregation sung ' with the spirit and with the understanding also." The edifice itself is one of the most elegant Wesleyan churches in England. The front is adorned with a fine Corinthian portico, resting on a platform, to which you ascend by two banks of stone steps. It is flanked on each side by neat wings, projecting towards the street, anil connected with the main edifice by arcades sup- ported by fluted columns. Under these arcades are flagged passages, leading into grounds on either side of the church, neatly laid out, through which is the way to the vestry-room, in the rear of the building. The inte- rior of the edifice is capacious, well arranged, and neat in all its appointmients. The pulpit is advanced into the body of the church sonmc ten or twelve feet, and behind it is a recess occupied by the organ. There is no full choir of singers, but a few good voices, accompanied by the organ, lead the congregational singing, which is far better than I ha;ve ever known to be secured by the agency of a formal choir. On the whole, the chapel in Great Thornton-street is a model worthy of general imitation. Mly visit to Hull derived a melancholy interest from its associations with the name of my departed friend, Rev. G. G. Cookman. His father resides about a mile from the towll, in a neat and retired mansion. We talked with mournful pleasure of the virtues and the honours of his distinguished son, who found a grave in the deep, on his way to visit his venerable parent, in March, 1840. Mr. Cookman kindly aceornpanied us from Hull to York. The town is of great antiquity. It was here that the legions bestowed the imperial purple upon Con- stantine the Great, A.D. 306. The city still shows ves- HlitLI. 131 132 tiges of the Roman dominion. The principal object of interest for us was the Minster, or Cathedral, the finest monument of old architecture in the British dominions. The exterior appearance of the edifice met all my ex- pectations. We could not judge of the interior, which is undergoing repairs and alterations. It has been greatly injured by two fires, the first of which, in 1829, was the work of Martin, a maniac, who escaped from confine- ment in the night, broke into the cathedral through a window, collected the books, cushions, and seats into a pile, and set the whole on fire. Everything in the choir was consumed, and the ancient monuments and tombs were much defaced. The last fire, in 1840, greatly in- jured the nave and aisles. Brick walls arc now built across them, so that a complete view of the interior cannot be obtained. I visited two of the law courts in session at York. There was nothing noticeable in either except the wigs of the legal gentlemen. Standing behind them, you might think them all venerable men, as their wigs are equally large and equally white; but when you see their faces, you soon observe that youthful as well as aged brains repose under these solemn bags. There was a decent conformity between the gray hair and powdered wigs of some of the lawyers; but in their younger brethren, raven locks contrasted oddly with the powdered horsehair. They reminded me of young chickens peeping out beneath the mother fowl on a rainy day. How strong must the habit be which makes such grotesque costumes tolerable ! and yet many Eng- lishmen and English travellers seem to think there can be no learned judges or acute lawyers in America be- cause there are no gray wigs! Lord Denman presided in one of the courts. His ap- \ IG C .. pearance and deportment are in keeping with his great reputation. The general conduct of the proceedings was similar to that of our own courts. A small matter was on hand-the case of a man who had disarranged a steam-engine, because he was turned out of employ- mnent-and whatt was said and done, of course possess- ed no peculiar interest. As we passed the Cathedral again, the bells were pealing away right merrily. Asking the cause, I found they were ringing for the races, and that Prince George was in town to attend them. Cathedral bells ringing for the races ! Why may not the archbishop and his clergy attend them too And then, why not the peo- ple I find, by the English papers, that some of the clergy still attend the races, and I have noticed more than once, accounts of reverend gentlemen and their families honouring balls and dances with their presence. But it is matter of rejoicing that, within thirty or forty years, there has been great improvement in this respect; it could hardly be possible now that " six bishops and their families, six deans and their families, seven arch- deacons and their families, and at least fifty other cler- gymen and their families" could be found attending a p-ivate theatre in one town, as was the case in Kil- kenny in 1805. I suppose this ringing of the Cathe- dral bells for the races is a relic of the old barbarism; improvement in individual manners and morals having outstripped established usages, as is generally the case in human society, Episcopalians are learning, to some extent at least, that the true interest as well as dutv of their church can be best sustained by godly lives and faithful services on the part of the clergy. Had they always been what they should have been, Methodism I London Christian Observer, January, 1843. VOL. II.-M BELLS. 133 and Dissent would never have reached their present strong positions; and even as things are, if the prel- ates and clergy of the Church of England were all god- ly and faithful me6, and the enormous revenues of the Church were divided amnong, its ministers on some equi- table scheme, instead of being lavished, as they have been, upon dignitaries and holders of sinecures, I can almost believe that Methodism and Dissent would van- ish in a century. Piety, generally diffused among the English clergy, would bring them down from the giddy elevation of their self-styled apostolical position to the scriptural ground formerly occupied by many of her worthies, and at this day so nobly maintained by Arch- bishop Whately. Yet the late apparent revival of re- ligious zeal, even under the dangerous lorm of IPusey- ism, has done much in renewing the confidence and affection of the people, in many parts of England, to- wards the Establishment. How much, then, might be accomplished by a genuine revival of scriptural Chris- tianity, free from the absurdities of new Oxfordism From York we passed in two hours, by railway, to Darlington. Thus far, all our travelling in England had been in railroad cars, where all the variety might be summed up in one sentence: a bustle, a " bell, a shriek," a start, whisking under bridges, rattling over causeways, burrowingr in tunnels, and paying an enor- mous fare. At Darlington, for the first time, we em- barked in an English stage-coach. All that I had read of the superiority of English roads, coaches, and cattle -was fully realized. The coach is a neat affair, not by any means built on scientific principles, for the centre of gravity is alarmingly high; but yet, such is the ex- cellence of the roads and the skill of the drivers, that this is a matter of no account, Inside the coach are 134 ' TAG E-CO ACIL, THE COUNTRY. seats for four passengers, generally ladies or gentlemen, at least men with money in their pockets; outside, in front, arc seats for five and the driver; on the top, lug- gage is piled to a dizzy height; while behind, over the boot, are seats for eight more, generally agents, wait- ing-maids, servants, or what not. The boot generally contains luggage, I suppose; but in our case it held a number of dogs belonging to some sportsman whose servant was taking them to the country. Before this medley of gentlemen, men, women, luggage, and dogs, were four as fine animals as ever wore traces. It was a splendid sight to see the noble beasts doubling back upon their haunches, ready to bound away at the slight. est signal. The inside of the coach was fully taken up, so that we had to take our places outside; no loss, however, as it afforded us an opportunity of seeing one of the finest districts of England. There is no rural scenery in the world like that of England. The fields, as we passed, were ripening for the harvest, and groaned under the precious grain; the pastures, with the same deep, luxu- rianLt growth that I have before noticed, were covered with herds of the finest cattle; and now and then ap- peared one of the noble mansions of England imbosom- ed in its magnificent park. Well may an Englishman be proud of his native isle when he travels through her unrivalled agricultural districts. We made ten miles an hour from Darlington to New- castle, where we arrived at nine o'clock, and took rooms at the Turf Hotel. But I advise all travellers to avoid the Turf; it is a bad place, either in field or city. Af- ter a good sleep, we made an excursion to the Long- benton colliery, the principal coal-pit in the neighbour- hbod of Newcastle, It was necessary for us to obtain 135 LONGBENTON COLLIERY. permission from the superintendent, Mr. Wood, at Ken- ilworth, before we could visit the mines; so we drove to the place, but Mr. W. was absent. We were relieved by the politeness of Mrs. Wood, who sent a servant to the overseer, directing our admission, and suggesting that we should put on extra dresses, which would be furnished us at the office. Arriving at the office, we acted on this suggestion, and soon were so completely metamorphosed that it would have been dangerous to swear to our identity. A pair of coarse blue linsey pantaloons, an immense Quaker coat of the same mate- rial, without form or comeliness, with a close Icather cap, completed the array of my friend S.; another of the company was adorned with pantaloons too, short by twelve inches; a pair of somewhat better dimensions, struggling in vain to reach the skirt of a short blue roundabout, made up my equipment. In this guise we commenced our explorations. Arriving at the top of the shaft, we found it perpendicular and divided into four compartments, each forming a 'distinct shaft, lined with plank from top to bottom. The coal-boxes fit into these, and one set of boxes is brought up one compart- ment while another set descends another, by steam power. Two of the boxes were taken out, and we, withi our guide, put into their places. The word was given, and we made the descent in a minute and a quarter, twelve hundred feet, through total darkness, which was suddenly dissipated by the gleam of the miners' lamps when we reached the level of this nether world. We found ourselves on a smooth iron pavement, over which the coal-boxes were rolled on wheels to the frames sus- pended from above to raise them up the shaft. The thunder of the descending frames as they struck upon the heavy springs below; the noise of coal-boxes roll- 136 ing over the iron floor; the bustle of trains of cars arri-ving and departing over the subterranean railways that branched off for miles in every direction; with the dimly-defined forms of the coal-blackened workmen, whose eyes and teeth glistened from their begrimed faces, presented a scene as wonderful as it was novel. We were each furnished with a tallow candle stuck in a piece of soft clay, and thus set out on our subterra- nean excursion. The first half mile was through a stone-drift, that is, an avenue cut through the rock to the lower edge of the coal vein. Near the working ground was a large stable formed by cutting away the coal and exposing the rock formation above and below it was semicircular, and contained about forty stalls. Twenty horses and ten jacks and ponies are employed in the mine, the former being used in the main tracks, and the latter in the side drifts, where the vein of coal is not more than five feet thick. We now passed into the midst of the mines; and as every man, hurrying to and fro, carried a light, and every picker had one stuck on his forehead, or in the coal seam before him, it was indeed an unearthly scene, heightened by the incessant thundering of the moving trains in wild uproar, made still wilder by the occasional explosion of a miner's charge, blasting off the mass of coal which he had un- dermined with his pickaxe. We now approached the little companies of pickers on each side of the main avenue. The seams did not average more than four or five feet in thickness; of course the workmen could not stand erect, and we had to approach them in a stooping posture. I gazed at the poor fellows with pity. Their faces, arms, and legs from the knee to the ankle, were bare, but perfectly black, except the eyes and teeth, which, as I have be- MI 2 COAL MINE. 137 fore remarked, glistened remarkably by contrast. Un- der the loose flannel shirt which covered the shoulders and chest, I could see the strongly-developed pectoral muscles, which are unnaturally strengthened by their peculiar work. Their feet were uniformly well defend- ed by yarn socks and heavy iron-nailed shoes. The men were cheerful, and even jovial at their work; and perhaps my sympathies were thrown away. Yet I felt, in looking at their wretched toil, that I would prefer to lay all my boys, while young, in one common grave, rather than consign them to such a livin, tomb as this. I had the same impressions in the cotton-mills in Mlan- chester in regard to my daughters. Yet the men seemed cheerful and contented; doubtless they are so. I talked freely with them, and was amused with their uncouth yet honest language. An old man acted as guide for us, and we had much conversation with him. He had been in the mines for thirty-five years, and was at this time overseer of the men employed below. I found that his name was Joseph, and that he was a Wesleyan Meth'o- dist. When informed that two of us were Methodist preachers from America, he was greatly pleased, and his old eyes almost lighted up the horrible darkness around. He shook us heartily by the hand, and insist- ed on making us known to the Wesleyan Methodist, the New Connexion Methodist, and the Primitive Methodist men, as we passed through the works. Each of these classes of Methodists has a chapel in the little village of some 400 families, above the mines. I asked Joseph what preacher they liked best. He answered promptly, "Honest John, of Newcastle. Ah! but he's a brave lad, is honest John. He came here often with Sammy Hicks, the blacksmith." Once turn- ing short upon me, he asked, " Have you any tee-total- 138 COLLIERS. JOSEPIH. 139 lers in America Are you one Ay! ay! then give me your hand; I would not drink a glass of ale for a sovereign." Everything about Joseph was hearty and honest. It is a pity that Wesleyan Methodists should lose their hold upon this class of people. We made our way back to the shaft, and were solon again enjoying the sweet air and the bright sky. Aeirc laughing heartily at the odd figure we cut in our sooty garments, and gratifying Joseph's heart with a gift Ibr his Sunday-school, wve departed, much gratified witl. our visit to the mines. A LYING AGENT. CHAPTER IX. EDINBURGH. A lying Agent.-Annoyance of Servants in England.-Bolting a Breakfast. -A dirty Village. -Alnwick. -Arrival at Edinburgh. -General Appear- ance of the City.-Origin of the New Town.-The Old Town.-Holyrood Palace.-The Barber in the Abbey.-Bones of the Kings.-Queen Mary's Apartments.-Rizzio's Closet. I WENT to the coach-office in Newcastle on the night before our departure, and had our company booked for Edinburgh. The clerk engaged to give us the four front seats outside, and it was expressly on this con- dition that he received our money and entered our names. Coming to the office next morning at 7 o'clock, the hour appointed, we found the coach ready, but lo our seats were occupied by four stout men, who seemed as much at home in them as if they were their own. I went into the office and asked my honest clerk to keep his promise, and give us the seats we had paid for. " You should have been here and seized them before any one else; it can't be helped now," was the fellow's reply, though he had expressly promised us the seats the very night before. Had he told us that seats could not be secured, and that each passenger had the right of helping himself, we should have understood the mat- ter, and no harm would have been done. However, as we were in haste to reach Edinburgh, we had to sub- mit. If there be any man in Christendom whom you are not to believe, even in the most solemn (profession- al) promises, it is the agent of an English coach. It is not so on the Continent, where you are free also from 140 A DIRTY VILLAGE. another English annoyance-the perpetual, mean, horse. leech cries of servants of all ranks, let loose on the trav- eller, to get their pay, by extortionate masters. I have even understood that in some cases the coachman and guard pay their master for the privilege of plundering travellers, or abusing such as refuse to be plundered. The demands of the guard and coachmen from New- castle to Edinburgh amounted to eight per cent. of the passage-money paid to the proprietors. The same sys- tem prevails at the hotels. It would be a vast improve- ment if the servants were paid, as they are in other civ- ilized countries, by their masters, and the expense ad- ded to the traveller's bill; and there are few, I am sure. who would not be willing to pay more in this way rath- er than be annoyed at every turn by "Remember the chambermaid, sir ;" " the waiter, sir ;" "the boots, sir ;" '" the porter, sir," to the end of the chapter. Some ho- tels, I find, as the Queen's at Birmingham, have adopted the better practice, and it is generally followed on the railways. The coach stopped for breakfast at Morpeth, fourteen miles from Newcastle. We had taken the precaution to breakfast before leaving town, and it was well we did, for if the passengers succeeded in accomplishing the meal in the ten minutes allowed them, they must have had greater capacities for bolting food than even Americans can be charged with. I employed the few minutes in looking at the village street. It was market- day, and the sidewalks were literally covered with bul- locks on one side of the street, and on the other With peniis containing sheep and lambs! Some of these were directlv adjoining the houses. A cleanly practice truly. As we passed on, the fields were alive with labour- ers, gathering in the harvest. So far as we could judge, 141 they looked hale and cheerful; but in general the con- dition of the agricultural labourers of England is wretch- ed in the extreme-worse, even, as I have remarked elsewhere, than that of the operatives in the manufac- turing districts. At noon, I noticed a neat column ri- sing amid a clump of trees, surmounted by the British lion, and, as we approached, read on the base the mot- to, Esperance en Dieu: I learned from the coachman that it was erected by the tenantry of the late Earl of Northumberland, in honour of his memory. It stands near the entrance of Alnwick, an ancient walled town, on the north side of which is the feudal castle of the same name. The duke resides here much of his time, and the estate is kept in fine order. No wonder the nobility of England hold to their privileges with an iron grasp. If any class of men are to be envied, either for power to do good or evil, for their high position as a body, and their opportunity of enjoying life to the ut- most, it is the English nobility. Pity that so fair a struc- ture should rest upon no better basis than the wrongs and misery of the bulk of the people! In the dusk of the evening we reached Edinburgh, and found comfortable lodgings at the Royal Hotel. EDINBURGH. Under the guidance of Messrs. F. of Edinburgh, who kindly gave up their time to us, we saw almost everv- thing of interest in and about the beautiful city. Beau- tiful, indeed, it is-perhaps more so than any other city in Europe, though possessing no magnificent public buildings, nor any of the fine parks which so firequently adorn the Continental cities. It is built upon three ridg- es which descend towards the Forth, the most norther- ly of which is occupied by the New Town of Edinburgh, 142 EDINBURGH. HIGH HOUSES. which is as different from the Old Town as if the two districts were in separate hemispheres. The streets in the New Town are wide and wvell paved; the houses large and built of hewn stone, gen- erally three or four stories high, of chaste architecture, moderately ornamented. No one house attracts par- ticular attention, nor does any square or place particu- larly excel the rest; but the effect of the whole is high- ly agreeable. Perhaps Moray Place affords the best collection of buildings, and Princes'-street the finest view. Edinburgh has no commerce or manufactures, but owes its prosperity principally to the University and to the law courts. The former has about one thousand students on its books; and the number of judges, advo- cates, writers to the signet, c., amounts to perhaps fif- teen hundred. The attraction of so learned a society draws many strangers from abroad, and many of the Scotch nobility reside here during the winter. It was for the accommodation of this population that the New Town was erected, mostly within the last half century; and the Old Town has been left mainly in the possession of the college, and of the " particularly dirty" popula- tion commemorated by our countryman Willis. But it has many, perhaps most of the objects for which a stranger asks in Edinburgh-Canongate, John Knox's house, and Holyrood bringing up more associations than almost all the city beside. One of the most remarkable features of Edinburah is the height of the houses on the slopes of the ridges which divide the city. AMany of them are five, six, and even ten stories high on the declivitv of the hill. You will observe, in passing one of these lofty crections, eiglht or ten separate bell-handles at the door, with a name attach- 143 ed to each; there are as many families residing in the house as there are bells; and if you wish to see any of them, you ring the appropriate bell, the front door is open- ed, and you ascend until you see upon a door the name you are seeking. Each story is called afiat; not unfre- quently there are as many families as flats; and what is more remarkable still, it is often the case that the hold- er of a flat owns it in fee, with right of way on the com- mon stairs. The highest owner possesses right upward ad infinitum, and may sell the right to erect a flat above him, and so on in succession.. Most of the passages in the Old Town are narrow " wynds" of these lofty old houses, which rise like rocky walls, through which the crooked avenues seem to have been hewn. The filth of these wynds is beyond description. Holyrood Palace lies at the eastern extremity of Canongate-street, in the Old Town. The building is a quadrangle, enclosing an area of over ninety feet square, and has nothing remarkable in its appearance. All the parts of the palace were not accessible at the time of our visit, as great preparations were making for the re- ception of the queen; but we were admitted to the northeastern part, containing Queen Mary's apartments. Before ascending to these we passed into the ruined chapel of the abbey-all that remains of that vast re- ligious edifice. The roof has fallen in and carried away one range of pillars forming the aisles: the broken walls and columns stood desolate and overgrown with ivy. An old ragged barber was cutting a beggar's hair near the spot where had stood the high altar before which the Queen of Scots had plighted her faith to Darnley ! In the southwest corner is an iron door; looking in at the grating, I saw a few bones lying upon some coarse, boards, with an inscription above: "Only remains of the 144 HIOLYROOD). RIZZIO S CLOSET. kings and queens of Scotland, David TI., James II., Ar- thur, James V., Magdalene, queen of James V. ; Ar- thur of Albany, Lord Darnley." Of all these, only two sculls and some scattered bones remain. In the times of the commonwealth, the royal tombs were broken open, and the bones scattered over the abbey: all that remained were afterward gathered up, but being un- distinguishable, were placed here as they are now seen. Truly, " the world passeth away and the glory thereof." The apartments of Queen Mary retain her bed and furniture just as she left them. We were shown the closet in which Rizzio was murdered, and the veritable bloodstains at the door of the apartment. There can be no doubt about the spot where the murder was com- mitted; but the stains are rather apocryphal. Many other localities in Edinburgh deserve to be mentioned, but I cannot delay to speak of them. The days that I spent in the beautiful city were among the pleasantest that I enjoyed abroad; and for this enjoy- ment I am principally indebted to the kindness of the two Messrs. F., writers to the signet, who extended all possible courtesy to our party during our stay in the city. Here, as elsewhere, I do not speak of private hospitalities; but I cannot omit to mention the atten- tions of Doctor Abercrombie, to whom Mr. S. had a letter. VOL. I.-N 145 THE QUEEN92S VISIT CHAPTER X. EDINBURGH. Preparations for the Queen's Visit.- A Disappointment. -The Queen gets up too early in the Morning.- Tragi-comedy. - Mortification in Edin- burgh.-The Queen refuses to attend the Presbyterian Church.-General Excitement caused by her Conduct. UPON our return from the Highlands to Edinburgh, we found the town in a fever on account of the expect- ation of a visit from the queen. Everything was a la queen: silks, badges, ribands, and even hats. I noticed on a sign-board, " Alex. Craig Co., Hatters to the Queen." The city was rapidly filling up with visiters, and lodging-house keepers were in great spirits, rooms commanding from half a guinea to a guinea per night. The whole country appeared to be in motion. All this may be very well; but would it not be a good thing, too, for her majesty to pay a visit to the manufacturing districts, and throw the light of her countenance upon the perishing millions whose hands have coined the gold which supports her splendour A single glance at the people of Birmingham, Stockport, and Manchester, in their wretchedness, would excite far more feeling in her young and generous heart than all the petitions of Chartists and Dissenting clergymen which reach her at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, if they reach her at all, only through the hands of those who live by the oppression of the devoted people of England. To be sure, the queen is of little account in the British gov- ernment, according to the present working of the "glo- rious" Constitution; but could her eyes only be opened, 146 PREPARATION. and she be led to declare herself in favour of liberal opinions, she would be more than a match for the Eng- lish oligarchy, backed, as she would be, by the masses of the people. I went down to Granton Pier, three miles from the city, where the queen was to land, at the time appoint- ed for her reception. Scotland had poured down fiom hill, vale, and city, to greet her majesty and see the pageant. The long pier, projecting a thousand feet into the Forth, was covered with living masses; gala-boats, with gay streamers, filled the Frith; while on the whole way to the city, two miles long, galleries were erected, with seats rising above each other, to occupy which for a day, and enjoy a moment's glance at the sover- eign, thousands paid from two to ten shillings each. Temporary arches, covered with garlands, were erect- ed at intervals along the road: the streets of the town were alive with people; and the prominent buildings were covered with banners, inscribed in gilt letters, "Welcome Victoria --d Albert ;" "Hail to Scotland's Queen," c. There was bustle of preparation enough then; for weeks all Scotland had been in a fever getting up this grand reception. And now, at last, it was to come off! As I have said, her majesty was to land at Granton Pier. From early dawn the people had sat and stood patiently. Hour after hour passed away, anxious eyes looked long and earnestly down the Forth to catch the first glimpse of the royal squadron; yet there was no murmuring, for the queen would surely land then, and had promised to land there, and there could be no dis- appointment. Alas! queens may make mistakes as well as other good people ! At four o'clock, when the anxi- ety of the people was at its height, the lord-provost 147 DISAPPOINTMENT. gave notice that her majesty would not land until next morning. I never saw so sudden a revulsion of feeling. Had the lord-provost thrown a sheet of snow over the assembled thousands, he could not have given them a more effectual damper. Enthusiasm was gone, and loyalty, in many instances at least, went with it; the people knew that they were fatigued, and feared they had been imposed upon. However, it was announced that everything would go on well next day, her majes- ty would land, cannons would be fired, there would be a grand procession, and everybody could see the queen. This was a crumb of comfort at least. But it seemed as if fortune and Victoria were deter- mined to disappoint and annoy the Scotch. The night before, the whole border mountains had been illuminated by bonfires in honour of her majesty's arrival, while her majesty had not set foot upon the shore; and now, in the morning, what did she do but land before the poor people, worn out with the fatigue and disappoint- ment of the previous day, had got out of their beds Who could imagine that the Queen of England would rise at so unqueenly an hour as seven o'clock in the morning And yet she did, it appears; and, according to the common rumour, though she was told that the arrangements of the city authorities contemplated her reception at ten o'clock, she was tired of the boat, and land she would, and land she did, to the utter discomfit- ure of the right worshipful the magistrates of Edin- burgh, and to the infinite annoyance of the multitudes, who only awoke from their dreams to learn that her majesty had landed, passed through the city with her own attendants, and that there was an end of it. Oh! what strange, ludicrous, miserable, angry, and mortified faces I saw in Edinburgh that day. So dis- 149 TR AGI-COMEDY. satisfied a city was hardiy ever known in the memory of man. Above all, the poor lord-provost and the civic authorities were to be pitied for the tragi-comical ab- surdity of their position. They had determined to meet her mac jesty at the barrier, make an address, deliver the keys of the city, and then join the royal procession. In ordcr to do this in a guise worthy of their ancient andc honourable city, the worthy gentlemen had arrayed themselves (according to the Glasgow Herald) in the following becoming attire: "White stock and white kid gloves. Single-breasted black coat, with bag annexed. Lace ruffles at the breast and hands. No shirt-collar to be seen. Single-breast- ed black cloth waistcoat, with lappets. Black breeches, wvith white buckles. Black silk stockings. Shoes and whlite buckles. A cocked hat." The following account of the scene which ensued is given in the paper referred to "About nine o'clock the lord-provost, magistrates, council, and other public bodies began to assemble at the Council Chamber in High-street, opposite which their carriages wvere drawn up-half an hour, it will be obscr-ed, after the royal procession had commenced fiom Granton, but of this important fact the civic digni- taries were, unfortunately, entirely ignorant. The seem- ing security of the magistrates imparted a similar feeling to the large body of the people around, as well as to the strangers and citizens in other parts of the towkn, that there would be ample time allowed for taking up places, and seeing the royal party to advantage. In the mean time, a deputation, consisting of Bailie Richardson and _Mr. Black, proceeded to Granton to learn her majesty's l)leasure as to the time of her landing, intending to have immediately issued placards announcing the hour to the N 2 l149 inhabitants generally. While the deputation was ab- sent the parties stood chatting around, congratulating each other on the fact that the weather was clearing, and that everything seemed to favour the royal land- ing; the civic robes were ready to be donned; the silver keys were ready for the lifting, and though about half past nine the Castle guns boomed a royal salute- which was, in fact, the intimation that her majesty's carriage had passed the city barrier-it was only be- lieved to be part and parcel of the rejoicings of the day, and the chit-chat went on as before. Immediately, however, the intimation reached the Chamber that the royal party had in reality passed the barrier, and was rapidly moving on Princes'-street, an intimation which at first could scarcely be credited, but was immediately found to be too true. The whole royal party was, ill fact, slipping through their fingers in the very heart of the city, while the authorities were calmly waiting the signal for landing. Then all those who had carriages rushed to them with the speed of desperation, and those who had none took to their heels as if pursued by the evil one. The only chance of obtaining a sight of the queen seemed to be to gain the top of the Abbey Hill, so that they might intercept the royal party at the end of Regent Terrace, before it passed on to Jock's Lodge, on the road to Dalkeith. The lord-provost's carriage took the lead, and, with every one else, and their name was legion, it became a hot-footed race, or scamper, of the most furious energy down the steep High-street and Canongate, and then skirting Holyrood, up the Abbey Hill-a race, we should say (having run it), of fully a mile over the roughest turf imaginable. At the same time, the crowd, which had been disappointed in seeing the sight at Princes'-street, came pouring over the North Who A -RACE. Bridge, and being met by the masses from the south side of the city, all joined the Canongate 2 aid at break- neck speed. There were people of every age, form, and degree, all intent on the race, jostling, squeezing, and bounding forward with might and mettle. Bare- legged laddics ran alongside of well-shod men, and the silk stockings of some of the officials went smashing and plashing through the Canongate mud, alongside of the Newhaven fish-wife, who was running to the top of her bent. Fruit stands were overturned, and in the case of one old woman, who crouched down the better to pre- serve her little store of apples, and turned her back to the human torrent, not a few of the two-legged racers leaped right over her head. In fact, it had all the ap- pearance of a death-and-life race alike by gentle and simple, and was altogether a scene which will not soon be forgotten, but, when the fatigues are over, afford food for merriment for many a day. For some time the pace was tremendous. All appeared to be aware that the point for which they were making was their only hope of gaining a sight of her majesty ; and even that presented a faint hope. Before they were half way down the Canonoate, the pace of many began to flag, and, as they passed Holyrood, a great many halt- ed, in the vague hope that her majesty might, after all, visit this palace of her ancestors. A large section of the most persevering of the runners gained the top of the Abbey Hill, at the junction of the Regent Terrace. just as the royal cortege was approaching it ; and as there were some splendid ranges of platform which had been erected to overlook the road, they seized possession of them without fee asked or given, almost as wildly as an infuriated soldiery would rush into a besieged town, and there were they gratified by the sight of the royal A RAID. 151 THE LORD-PROVOST. pair, which amply repaid them for all their rapid toil. By others, the race was kept up through the park be- hind the Abbey, down the lane that opens upon Comely Green, on the Portobello road, where their stanch en- thusiasm was at last rewarded by finding that they were a few yards in advance of the royal cortge, that was coming slowly past in the same order as before; the Royal Archers, which had met them on the road, grouped around the royal carriage in somewhat broken order, her majesty and the prince bowing gracefully to the cheers and waving of handkerchiefs that greeted them as they passed. The return from witnessing the royal procession was of an amusing description. Many who had struggled desperately to get forward were now making their way into the city at a wearied pace, with garments which bore sad marks of jostling, and faces which had assumed a flaming ruddiness. Many there were with hat in hand, who were wiping the per- spiration from brow and countenance, and endeavour- ing to erect shirt-collars which once had been stiff, but were now softened and fallen from the moisture." The mortification occasioned by this chapter of acci- dents in Edinburgh cannot be described. The chop- fallen authorities tried to mend the matter by proceed- ing in a body to Dalkeith, to express their disappoint- rnent, and to entreat that the Queen would gratify the inhabitants by a public entry on a subsequent day. But One of the Edinburgh papers had the following doggerel lines relative to the absence of the lord-provost on the occasion of the landing of her majes- ty. The lord-provost is named James Forrest: Hey, Jamie Forrest, are ye waukin' yet Or are your bailies snorin' yet If ye are waukin', I would wait; Ye'd hae a merry, merry mornin'. Hey, Jamie, c. 152 MORTIFICATION. 153 it was in vain. They had to swallow their disgrace, and it soon changed into indignation. Nor was this the last or worst of the evils of this un- fortunate journey. When I visited St. Giles's Cathedral, before the arrival of the queen, it was in an uproar of preparation for the reception of her majesty at worship The frigate guns they loud did roar, But louder did the bailies snore, And thought it was an unco bore To rise up in the mornin. Hey, Jamie, c. And syne the castle thunder'd loud, But kipper it is savoury food, And that the bailies understood, Sae early in the mornin'. Hey, Jamie, c. The queen she's come to Granton Pier, Nae provost and nae bailie here; They're in their beds, I muckle fear, Sae early in the mornin'. Hey, Jamie, c. The queen she's come to Brandon-street, The provost and the keys to meet; And div ye think that she's to wait Your waukin' in the mornin' Hey, Jamie, c. My lord, my lord, the queen is here, And now my lord he lookit queer; And what sets her so soon asteer It's barely nine in the mornin'. Hey, Jamie, c. Gae, bring to me my robes o' state, Come, bailies, we will catch her yet; Run, run, my lord, ye're ower late, She's been through the town this mornin. Hey, Jamie, c. Awa' to Dalkeith ye maun hie, To mak' your best apology; The queen she'll say, 0 fy ! 0 fy! You're lazy loons in the mornin'. Hey, Jamie, on Sunday. It was universally believed that she would join in the service of the Established Church (the Pres- byterian) during her stay in Scotland. Least of all was it imagined that she would choose such a period as that of her royal progress, a period, too, when the Scottish Establishment itself was on the verge of rup- ture, to inflict an open insult upon the religious feeling of the nation. Yet so it was. On the very first Sun- day after her arrival, instead of attending public wor- ship at St. Giles's, though she was informed that the au- thorities had gone to much trouble and expense in pre- paring the church for her reception, she had service privately performed in the Duke of Buccleuch's dining- room by a Puseyite clergyman, as truly a dissenter in Scotland as a Presbyterian minister is in England. The indignation of the people knew no bounds. It was currently asserted that if the queen came into Edin- burgh, she would be hissed and scoffed by the popu- lace. Tor was this bitterness of feeling confined to Edinburgh, or even to Scotland. Wherever I went in Scotland, I met with complaints, loud and deep, at the want of regard for the feelings of the citizens of Edin- burgh which had been manifested by the mode of the Quecn's entrance, and the affront put upon the Presby- terian religion by her refusal to join in its religious wor- ship. It was, in effect, telling the people of Scotland what the Bishop of London, in a subsequent charge, told the people of England, that " the clergy of the Na- tional Church (of England), AND 'rllEY ALONE, are enti- tled to the respect and obedience of the people, as their lawful guides and governors in spiritual things. They alone are duly commissioned to preach the Word of God and administer the sacraments." The conduct of the Queen was defended in England 154 A\N1 N; ULT'. THE ROYAL1 PROGRESS. by High-churclhmen of course. 11er royal conscience would have been wounded by attendance at the Pres- byterian Church of Scotland ! Truly, the " Jews can have no dealings with the Samaritans." But among all other classes of the community, this gratuitous declara- tion that (save the Church of Rome) there is no church in Great Britain but the Church of England, met with deserved reprobation. It was believed, indeed, that the course of the Queen was marked out before she left England, and that it was by deliberate forethought that this happy measure for attracting Scottish hearts to the National Church was hit upon. The Times (I think it was) had remarked that a complete and perfect union of the two nations under one head would not be possi- ble " until, by a long-continued legal union, the habits, the manners, the institutions, and the religion of the two people become more and more one and the same, This has been gradually the case with Scotland and England. We doubt not that it wvill ultimately be more so. Doubtless a royal progress, such as that noxv made by Queen Victoria, has the very best effect in tending to promote, though insensibly, this desirable consumma- tion. Never did royal progress fail more signally. What- ever differences existed at that time among the clergy of the Church of Scotland, there was none in their feel- ings with regard to the conduct of Victoria. Misera- bly did she and her advisers mistake the spirit of the clergy and the people of Scotland. And in England, uliversal s mpathy of feeling was developed among all classes but Hiigh-churchmen; a feeling which was heigaht- ened by the general excitement of the public mind on the subject of Pusevism, or Popery in the Church of England. As this refusal of the queen was an entirely 155 156 TlHE ROYAL PROGRESS. new manifestation of the royal conscience, it was be- lieved that the poison of Puseyite opinions had been infused into her mind, even to a greater extent than had been before suppcsed, and that the weight of the royal example would be thrown into the scale of popish doc- ti-nes and practices. There was some reason for the i ference. THE FREE CHURCH CHAPTER XI. THIE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. FOR several years past Scotland has been agitated from the centre of her capital to the extremity of her most retired glen; even to the loneliest of her Heb- rides. The spirit of John Knox has been evoked fiom its rest by the infringement of the civil power upon the lawful dominion of the spiritual courts; and it has be- corne a question whether the State or Christ shall be the Head of the Church in Scotland. The issue raised was, Has the State or the Church, through her proper courts, the right of creating the pastoral relation between the minister and the people he is to serve Since the reign of Queen Anne, the State has claimed it for the patrons of the different livings, and enforced it repeat- edly through the civil courts against the violent protesta- tions of the people. For more than a century was the strife continued, though with different degrees of en- ergy. At first, the regular protest, recorded by the General Assembly, year after year, against the act of 1712, was a document of some meaning; but in the pro- cess of time it came to be a matter of form. By de- glees, of course, the character of the Assembly was changed, as the old ministers fell off and the new sup- ply, furnished by patronage, filled their places. The Moderates, as they were called, who vindicated patron- age, were the majority. But the people were not easi- ly subdued. The old Scottish spirit remained. They sometimes took the p esentce captive, and detained OL. I1.-O 157 THE FREE CHURCH. him until the time for ordination and installation had passed. At other times the government sent a detach- ment of soldiers to ensure the installation and pos- session of Kirk, and glebe, and tithes. But the mighty movement of the religious mind of Christendom, caused by the blessing of the Spirit of God upon the labours of Wesley and Whitfield in the last century, had reached Scotland, and the Church awoke from the lethargy of moderatism. A Chalmers and a Gordon arose. They saw the abuses of patron- age; they saw bad men placed over 'he people as min- isters, against their wishes, and against the decisions of the Church courts. They resolved to fall back upon the Treaty of Union, which secured the independence of the Church of Scotland; and the General Assembly in 1834 passed an act ensuring to each congregation that no minister should be intruded on them against their will, though the patron should insist in favour of the presentee. This was the veto act, giving the peon ple a negative in the case of presentation. All who maintained it were called vetoists, or non-intrusion- ists, because they would not suffer a minister to be in- truded upon them against their consent. Under this act of the General Assembly, the spirit and piety of the people revived ; but the interests of the patrons decli- ned. Their right of presentation was not so valuable, as the presentee might be rejected by the people, and most assuredly would be required by them to lead a reasonably exemplary life; in default of which he might be arrested, tried, and deposed from his ministerial office, and, of course, ejected from the living. Thcse dangers to the interests of patronage were increased in proportion to the growth of the evangelical party in the ministry and among the people. The patrons applied 158 THE FREE CHURCH OF ,('O'1LAND. to the civil courts to protect them in their rights ac- cording to the act of Anne; and the people looked to the General Assembly of the Church to protect them from the rapacious wolves in sheep's clothing present- ed to them by the patrons, and forced upon them by the civil courts. The Assembly not only fell back upon the Treaty of Union, but upon the act of 1690, giving them a liberum arbitrium, or final jurisdiction over all spiritual cases. They took their stand nobly for the rights of the people, the rights of conscience, and the independence and glory of Christ in his Church. The battle was now fairly begun between the true spirit of the Reformation, which had set Scotland free three centuries before, and that secularized church power which, unfortunately, is incorporated closely with the British Constitution. There was nmuch at stake on both sides. The gov- ernment saw clearly that, if the communicants in the Scotch Church had a right to exercise a veto powerV over the presentee, it might not be long before the com- municants in the English Church might discover and claim their rights, too, in this matter. Perhaps they saw, also, that the triumph of the Scotch Church would be, and truly, too, held to be a dangerous encroach- ment upon the v vested rights" of patrons or great fam- ilies. This would have been throwing a bomb into the citadel of the aristocracy, whose foundations are laid in vested rights, i. e., rights which they themselves have created in their own favour, and which time has conse- crated, and thus protected from the vulgar touch. On the other hand, the Church felt that she was called to preach the Gospel to the poor, and to protect her flocks, at all hazards, from devouring wolves. On the one hand was the civil power, through the courts, putting 159 TIHE FREE CHIUIR2IC OF SCOTLAND. whole districts under interdict, forbidding the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments under the authority of the Church; restoring wicked men, whom she had excommunicated, to the holy office, and protecting them in the exercise of it; and appoint- ing others to the pastoral charge whom she declared never to have been ministers. On the other hand, the Church stood on her principles and her integrity, and appealed from the civil courts in her own midst to the House of Lords for protection. The answer of the government to her powerful and eijquent petitions too clearly showed that she had nothing to hope from the pec rs; and with a decision and prudence worthy of the best ages of the Church, she took preliminary steps peaceably to separate from the Establishment. The people saw their shepherds preparing to lead them iorth from spiritual bondage; and their hearts beat quick and strong as they looked to their coming deliverance, and comprehended clearly that it wvouldt cost their pastors their salaries, churches, manses, and glebes-in short, their homes-and cast them wholly upon the voluntary support of the people. All Scot- land became one volcano of excited feeling. Whether those deep earthquake throes pervading the community should issue in an explosion or not, depended upon the fate of the appeal sent up to the House of Lords. During the progress of these events. the Queen and her government made a tour through Scotland; but they could not discern the spirit of the people, nor of their pastors. They made inquiry, but not of the right per- sons, as to the probability of any secession if the gov. ernment persisted in enforcing the pretended rights of patrons, and if any, whether it would be to such an ex- tent and of such persons as ought to give the govern- 160 THE FREE CHURCH OF SCO'T LAND. m-nvt any concern. Unfortunately, the conclusion was that thyre would be but a trifling secession, if any. So the governm-ient and the Queen rambled through the Iii-lilands and returned to London. Itj the mean time, the House of Lords decided against t hie Ch urch, and maintained the rights of patrons. T he civil courts vitiated the elections to the General Assem- blv. The resolution of the people and pastors grew firmer, and the attention of all Scotland was turned to- wards the capital as the month of May, 1843, advanced. The General Assembly was to meet on Thursday, the 18th. After the duties of the Sabbath were over, on Monday, the 15th, and the following days, the people thronged the highways leading to Edinburgh. The crowd in the city became greater and greater, and on Thursday morning, the popular interest rivalled that which had been felt on the preceding August upon the advent of the youthful Queen and her court. The morning of the 18th had scarcely dawned when noble ladies and pious men were knocking for admit- tance at St. Andrew's, though the Assembly was not to meet before three o'clock, P.M. Scotland gathered around the sacred pile, and awaited the coming of the representatives of her truly reformed church. As the venerable men who stood at the head of the Assembly ad- vanced, a chasm opened in the masses of people, and the Canongate reeled under the rounds of applause with which they were. greeted. As the moderator, Dr. Welsh, entered, followed by Drs. Chalmers, Gordon, Candlish, and others, the vast and massive edifice shook with the reception which the people gave them. Scarce had the applause died away, when the most noble the Marquis of Bute, her majesty's lord-high-commissioner, entered with his suite. He was received standing and 0 2 161 THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. in silence. The cause of his mistress and the patrons had no hold upon the hearts of the people. The moder- ator rose in a few minutes, and no one breathed, lest a single word from him should be lost. He said, " A Free Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in accordance with the laws and constitution of said church, cannot now be holden, forreasons setforth in the following paper, which, with the permission of the House, I will read." It was a protest, in which the wrongs done to the Church by the government were recited; and the document concluded by declaring "that we are not responsible for any consequences that may follow firom this our en- forced separation from the Establishment, which we loved and prized, through interference with conscience, the dishonour done to Christ's crown, and the rejection of his sole and supreme authority as king in his Church." A pin might have been heard to fall amid the three thousand persons who listened; and the vast multitudes in the streets observed a profound silence, as if, by sym- pathy, they understood what was going on in the house. When the moderator ceased to read, he handed the pa- per to the clerk, took up his hat, and advanced to the door, followed by Drs. Chalmers, Gordon, Candlish, Cunningham, three hundred ministers, and a host of el- ders. 'the audience, struck with the sublimity of the act, burst into tears, and were silent; but when the band of martyrs for liberty in the Church emerged into the streets, they were received by the people with such thunders of applause as shook the Hills of Fife beyond the Forth, and startled the House of Lords for the first time to a sense of their danger. The seceding Assem- bly walked four abreast to Tanfield Hall. As they passed, the streets were thronged, windows were full, housetops were alive, and the air was rent with suc- 162 THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. cessive shouts, accompanied with the waving of hand- kerchiefs and the approving smiles of women. The deed was done ; the separation was made. Is- rael had escaped from Egypt; and there was as much consternation and disappointment in the residuary As- semnbly as formerly in Pharaoh's ldominions, when lie and his ministers became fully sensible that the Jews had escaped from them. The Free Assembly was constituted by choosing Dr. Chuldmers moderator. They proceeded to business. Spirit and dignity marked their transactions. I have not room to note the evangelical and patriotic speeches made on the various occasions. Every hour that the Assembly sat, day after day, other ministers, who hlad faltered or had not been present, came to the Free Assein- bly and gave in their adherence. Upon its adjourn- ment, a noble roll of five hundred true and fi:ithful pas- tors, emnbracing the learning and worth of the clergy-, was made out and distributed throughout the kingdom. The Assembly-having taken steps to prevent the scat- tering, of their flocks, and for building some six or eilht hundred churches by voluntary subscriptions, which poured in from all parts of the kingdom, and from Eng- land an(l Ireland-dissolved, and the pastors returned home to preach the last sermon each in the kirk where he had so often fed the people. Now came the reali- ty of separation. The churches were closed against them, and their people stood at the doors or wandered amid the graves of their forefathers. But where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty. They sat under a tree, or by the wayside, or on the margin of the streanm, and heard the Gospel from their faithful shep- herds. On Monday, notices were served to many of them to quit the manses. Their wives and children 163 THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. now became sensible what had been done to them. They were called on, without a day's notice, to quit their happy homes, and go forth they knew not whither. Some of them were sick, some old and infirm ; but no matter, they must go. They went forth, and God tem- pered the wind to the shorn lambs. The poor received them : the people provided for them, either sharing their own humble dwellings with them, or providing others for them. They lived with the people, and in their hearts. But as the Sabbath morning dawned, the people sigh- ed for the kirk. It was closed against them, or occupied by one intruded on them, and whom they disdained to hear. They essayed to assemble in barns, or shops, and sometimes on the highway, or by the water's side, but the lairds forbid them. Wherever sites could be obtained, they commenced building churches; but in many parishes they could not obtain a foot of ground to build on, either for love or money. The lords of the soil had no sympathy with the Free Protesting Church of Scotland, because it rejected their unhallowed claim to supreme rule in the house of Christ. Where new tenures could not be obtained. some good man or poor widow gave up their lease of a little spot for the erec- tion of a plain church. His grace the Duke of Buc- cleuch refused to allow a free church to be built any- where on his vast estates. He would take no money. An old woman had a long lease on a little spot. The duke offered her hundreds of pounds for it; but she re- fused, and said she would give it for a church to the Free Church of Scotland. Upon a survey of this great movement in the Church of Scotland, I am persuaded that nothing more glorious appears in the history of Christianity since the days of 164 HIE ClIURCH OF SCOTLAND. 1 65 the Reformation. There was a body of five hundred ministers, followed by their people, going out voluntarily from-i a richly-endowed establishment, throwing away their salaries, and homes, and schools, and all for con- science' sake. But they have been abundantly reward- e(l, and their conduct has given a new impulse to piety and freedom, and struck a blow at the union of Church and State from which it will not soon recover. The judgment and sympathy of Europe are with the Free Protesting Church of Scotland. I am aware Dr. Chalmers and many others still maintain that it is the duty of the state to provide for the religious instruction of the people. and to furnish revenues therefor. But they insist that the Church must not there- by be brought into bondage, and subjected, in spiritual matters to the control of the State. They will gradually give up this opinion, as Dr. Burns and many able ministers of the Free Church have already done. They will see that, if the Church is paid by the State, she must obey the State. The Free Church can triumph only on the voluntary principle. EXCELLENT ROADS. CHAPTER XII. THE HIGHLANDS. Excellent Roads.-Loch Leven.-Perth.-Pass of Killicrankie.-Dunkeld. -Sunday in Scotland-Worship.-Grounds of the Duke of Atholl.-For- est Trees planted.-Immense Estates.-Labourers.-Taymouth Castle.-- Return to Edinburgh.-Glasgow-Growth of the City.-Manufactures.- Buildings.-Education.-Paisley. AT four o'clock on a fine afternoon in August, we left Edinburgh in the mail-coach for Perth. The road was even better than those we had seen in England; and I think, in general, the preference must be given to those of Scotland. The horses went on at the top of their speed, tup hill and down; yet so firm and smooth was the road that I could read with ease, and nmv friend, Mr. S., wrote up his journal in a fair, legible hand. Men were at work upon the road in places which in America would have been considered in per- fect order. Crossing the Forth at Northl Queen's ferry, we reached Inverkeithing, a little village of great an- tiquity, once the royal residence of David I. Ifere we saw a " bonnie lassie" " swimming" in a little bay on the right of the road. Though encumbered with a bathing-dress, she ducked and dived like a mermaid. A dozen of her companions, full of glee, guarded the shore. Passing a number of country seats, some of them beautiful, but none splendid, we reached Loch Leven a little before sunset, and as we approached Kinross, our eves wandered eagerly and rapidly round upon the neighbouring hills, the scenes, in former days, of the 166 PASS OV KILLICRANXIE. strifes of the Earls of Morton with the neighbouring clans. We forgot the beauty of the lake in gazing upon the mouldering ruins of the Castle of Loch Leven, upon a little island in it, the prison-house of MNary, Queen of Scots, after her surrender at Carberry Hill. In the evening we went on from Kinross to Perth, seventeen miles, in an hour and a quarter. The road for a mile or two out of Perth has fine sidewalks, and we found many respectable people enjoying their even- ing promenade, among whom were females, apparent- ly decent and well-behaved, unattended by gentlemen. The town itself had a cheerful look, being well lighted with gas; and we had a very pleasant night at the George Hotel. There was great commotion in Perth, as had been the case at Edinburgh, in anticipation of the queen's visit. The town is pretty, and has many picturesque scenes in its neighbourhood, well worth a visit. Next day we drove to Dunkeld, left our luggage at the Queen's Arms Hotel, and ascended to Blair Athol, seventeen miles, to see the famous Pass of Killicrankie, through which the Garry runs to join the Tummel, a mile below. Had we not seen Switzerland, we should have been in raptures with this pass ; as it was, we were deeply impressed by its gloomy grandeur. The pass is formed by the sudden descent of the mountains on each side, at a fearful angle, until they meet in the glen, far below the road, which passes up on the right side, supported by a parapet wall, and overhung by the spreading branches of the old trees, which actually in- terlock their mighty arms from the opposite sides of the gorge. Entering the pass from the sunny vale of the Tay, was like passing from the plains of Italy to the forests of Norway. At the north end of the pass, on 167 SUNDAY IN SCOTLAND. the riaht of the road, stands a rude stone marking the spot where Dundee fell, by a random shot, in the hour of victory over the English forces under Mackay, in 1689. We spent a Sunday in Dunkeld, and found it truly a Christian Sabbath. Although the town lies on the great road from south to north, over which, during "legal davs" (as the advertisements have it), coaches and post- carriages are wavhirling every hour, yet during this entire Sunday no carriage passed my window excepting the mail-coach. The Sabbath is closely kept throughout Scotland, except on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Rail- way; and the General Assembly of the Church of Scot- land have protested strongly against this. Many pri- vate persons have also sent in remonstrances to the directors. The question was pending before the board when I left; how it was decided I have not learned, but I fear that the petitions have met with the usual fate of such applications. At 11 o'clock we went to the kirk, and heard a sermon from Rev. Mr. M'Kenzie, son-in-law of Dr. Chalmers. The congregation was not large, but quite decent in ap- pearance and demneanour. There was little apparent feeling either in preacher or people; but a proper rev- erence for the house of God and for his worship seemed to pervade their minds. The psalmody was not of the best. This church was formed out of the choir of the old Cathedral some years ago by the late Duke of Atholl. The Cathedral itself is now a venerable ruin; the walls and western tower are standing, and the fractured, lone- ly pillars within are overgrown with ivy. The tower is cracked, yet still shelters the old clock, whose deep tones, coming from that hoary ruin, fell startlingly upon our ears like a voice from the grave, And graves were 168 there, filled with the dead of many generations. It was a place for melancholy thoughts. One of the principal attractions of Dunkeld are the grounds of the Duke of Atholl. We strolled through them until we had walked five miles: we might have walked forty more, and then driven over the fine car- riage roads, all within the grounds, for thirty more! The late duke had a passion for planting trees on his vast mountainous estates. The hobby was wisely chosen. There is but little arable land among the Highlands; they are generally either bleak moors or hills, sometimes precipitous; and whether moor or hill, they are cov- ered with grass, moss, or heather, without a single tree to relieve the dreary desolation. The waste is some- what relieved by the gray rocks that peep out occasion- ally above the heather, and by the many flocks of sheep, scattered like specks of snow over the steep hillside. But the Duke of Atholl, many years ago, commenced planting trees on his bleak hills. I saw two larches in his park at Dunkeld which he brought from Norway fifty years ago. Twenty-seven millions of these trees, be- sides millions of other varieties, were planted by his or- ders; and now the larch woods alone cover 11,000 acres of ground. In our walk through the grounds, I saw many of these felled, and ready for market; they make fine timber. Before the introduction of forest trees, the principal wealth of the Highlands consisted in the flocks, and this is still the case in many districts. The sheep occupy the highest parts of the hills during summer, descend as the cold weather comes on, and pass the winter in the glens, around the solitary abodes of the peasantry. These are generally placed near a peat-bed, for the sake VOL. II.-P 169 HIGHILANDS. IMMENSE ESTATES. of fuel, and have small fields affording them potatoes and a little grass. The size of many of the Scottish estates is almost in- credible. The Marquis of Breadalbane's stretches from east to west ninety-nine miles, and averages fifteen miles wide. These vast tracts are cut up into farms, larger or smaller according to the character of the soil, which are leased for definite periods. I heard of some farmers supporting 50,000 sheep and paying pound;1000 rent. In conversing freely with the country people, I found that the farmers were generally prosperous, and sometimes wealthy; while the labourers are poorly paid, and live wretchedly. About thirty-five cents a day in summer, and twenty-seven in winter, are the average wages of a farm labourer. The relation of the large farmer to the agricultural labourer is very similar to that of the mill- owner in the manufacturing districts to his-operatives. In some respects the labourer is better off than the oper- ative; in others, worse. His emnployment is perhaps less fluctuating, and his wants are fewer; but, on the other hand, his position debars him from society and improve- ment. The introduction of timber will make an altera- tion-perhaps a favourable one-in their way of life. The domains of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Suther- land are still more valuable than those ot' which I have spoken; I have heard their income estimated at a mill- ion of dollars per annum. It is these enormous es- tates that produce and keep up at once the splendour of the higher and the misery of the lower classes in Great Britain. You may travel for days and weeks in England and Scotland, and unless you chance to meet a titled man, you will hardly find a single person who can call a foot of land his own. While we were traversing the Breadalbane estates, a hot-headed Scotchman gratified 170 IMMENSE ESTATES. himself with railing at America and American institu. tions. I asked him, in reply, if he had seen, for days, a Scotchrnan whose free step pressed upon his ownl Highland soil, or who dared to level his firelock at one of the thousand hares or birds that sported on the moors around him, or preyed upon his little patch of corn He was silent, and his mantling cheek showed that he felt the degradation of his countrymen. Taymouth Castle, the magnificent seat of the family of Breadalbane, is situated at the lower extremity of Loch Tay. For two niiles before we came in sight of the castle, we were passing through parks enclosed with walls of fine masonry, stocked with deer and with the bisons of North America. We were received at the gate by a Highlander, in the dress of the Campbell clan, the kilt, the tartan hose, and a wolf's skin round his waist, part of the leg and thigh being naked. He con- ducted us to the castle. The situation is beautiful. The building itself is of gray sandstone, four stories high, with round towers at the corners; a Gothic arcade sur- rounds the lower story, and its roof forms a promenade, on which the upper windows open. The grounds about the castle are admirably kept. Of our tour among the Highlands I shall say nothing farther. The beauties of the lakes, the glens, and the mountains, made classical by the genius of Scott, have been so often described that I need not add my own descriptions to the number. I may record the general impression, however, that was common to myself with most travellers, that the interest of these scenes springs far more from the associations with which genius has hallowed them, than from their own intrinsic beauty. We were far more excited in looking at the birth-place of Rob Roy, at the scenes of Roderick Dhu's exploits, at ]II the Goblin's Cave and the Lady's Island in Lake Katreen, than in gazing upon the natural features of the localities themselves, which, though often beautiful, and sometimes wild and striking, are yet surpassed in these respects by many scenes in Ireland and Switzerland. I returned from the Highlands to Edinburgh in order to be present at the time of the Queen's arrival. What occurred on that memorable occasion has been men- tioned in a preceding chapter. From Edinburgh I went by railway to Glasgow. Glasgow, the third city in Great Britain in trade, wealth, and population, lies upon the Clyde, about twen- ty-four miles from the Atlantic. The suburbs on the opposite shore of the river, forming quite a town of themselves, are connected with the city by three hand- some bridges. It is a very ancient city, dating its ori- gin as far back as the sixth century. Up to the eigh- teenth century, however, it was a place of no great im- portance, and was known only for its cathedral, its uni- versity, and its filth. Its population in 1651 was only about 14,000; but, owing to the establishment of manu- factures, it increased to 43,000 by 1780; and since that period, its rapid growth has been more like that of an American than a European city, its present popula- tion being estimated at over 270,000. As early as 1730 the manufacture of linen goods was commenced in Glasgow, and formed for half a cen- tury the principal business of the place. Much wealth was also gained by a heavy trade in tobacco, carried on principally with Virginia, which was arrested by the American Revolution. The manufacture of cotton goods by hand-loom weeavers was introduced in 1785, and power-looms in 1792. At present there are 40,000 hand-loom weavers, and about 17,000 power-looms in 172 GLASGOWi. operation The value of the annual manufacture of cotton goods is estimated at over two and a half mill- ions sterling. Cotton spinning, the manufacture of silk goods, and calico printing are also carried on largely. There are also extensive dye works, bleach works, iron forges, and chemical rnanufactories. The coal trade is enornmous, and steami-vessels and the machinery fLir steam-engrines arc largely manufactured. The whole aspect of the place and its suburbs is that of the manu- ficturing towns of England, with the exception of a few good streets in the new city, and the relics of antiquity that are still standing in the old. George-street, Bu- chanan-street, and a few others make a very pretty ap- pearance. Among the public buildings, the Royal Exchange is, perhaps, the most imposing. It has a showy colonnade composed of a double range of Corinthian columns, and contains a fine news room, one hundred feet long bv forty broad. The courthouse and some of the banks and churches make a good deal of architectural preten- sion, but none of them deserve any special mention. The Cathedral is a venerable relic of antiquity. It has fallen much into decay, but plans for its renovation have been proposed. It was saved from the general destruction of the old Gothic churches in Scotland du- ring the Reformation by the boldness of the tradesmen of Glasgow, who threatened to kill the man that should pull away the first stone. Though the tone of literature is much lower in Glas- gow than in Edinburgh, there is still an elevating in- fluence diffused by the University, and by the various educational institutions of the place. The University was founded in the fifteenth century, and has long maintained a distinguished reputation. The number P 2 173 GLASGOW. of students is generally over one thousand. Anderson's University affords lectures on physical science to the citizens generally, as does also the Mechanics' Institu- tion. The Glasgow Educational Society has under its charge an infant school, a training school, and a normal school; and its efficient management is well known to all who are interested in education. Like all overgrown manufacturing cities, Glasgow has sent colonies into all the neighbourhood. Every stream that affords water power is bordered with mills, and every village has its manufactures. Paisley, seven miles from Glasgow, though an old town, owes its pres- ent large population to the excess of the city, to which it bears the same relation that Stockport does to Man- chester. It is observed that these small towns in the neighbourhood of large manufacturing cities are the first to feel the effects of a revulsion in trade, and the last to recover from it. The operatives in this Scottish region had long felt the same ills, starvation and dis- ease, that drove their British brethren to their desperate rebellion, and had participated in the general move- ment; but at the time of my visit, they had generally recommenced work. I noticed the same general ap- pearance of physical debility and stunted size among these miserable beings as in Manchester. Some farther views of their condition will be found in the next chap- ter. 174 GLASGOW. PuWE R OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER XIII. THIE LABOURING CLASSES IN GREAT BRITAIN. Coexistence of National Wealth and National Misery. - The Power and Wealth of England.-Wretchedness of the Mass.-Poverty of the Habita- tions and General Condition of the Labouring Classes. -Illustrations in Stockport, Leeds, Manchester, Giasgow.-Lodging-houses.-Agricultural Districts.-Liverpool.-Moral Depravity.-Illustrations.-Ratio of lMortality in different Classes of Population. -Distress in Times of dull Trade.- Conclusions. A STATE may become rich and powerful while the great mass of the people that compose it are in misery. Their condition may not only not be improved, but may clearly be made worse in the ratio of the increase of national wealth. England presents at this day the spectacle of overflowing national wealth along with the almost universal wretchedness of the people. Never was England so rich and so powerful as at this hour. Her government was never more firmly es- tablished nor more vigorously administered; its machin- cry was never so thoroughly diffused over its territory, nor worked with so much precision and promptness. By its ubiquitous police, by its well-appointed regiments, its forts and garrisons, and by the splendid system of railways, it can concentrate an amount of force at any given point sufficient to crush an insurrection in the bud. The naval armaments of England are the wonder of the world. Her ships are familiar with every sea. Her dominion is established in every quarter of the earth. But it is not in the resources of the government, ex- traordinary as they are, that the wealth of England dis- 175 THE WEALTH OF ENGLAND plays itself most strikingly. The stranger beholds in the Thames ships enough, he would think, for the com- merce of many nations, and might imagine that Lon- don was only a city of merchants. A ramble in Hyde Park on some pleasant afternoon convinces him of his mistake. He sees around him evidences of wealth not sprunC from commerce. Equipages, any of them rich enough for royalty in other countries, whirl by him in scores. The beauty of the horses, the perfection of the harness, the richness of the whole array, and the multi- tude of liveried servants, dazzle and confound him. If he pass into the abodes, not merely of the aristocracy of blood, but into the other almost equal aristocracy of wealth, he will find a profusion of costly furniture which no other city in the world can match. Yet he might think that all the wealth and splendour of England is confined to the metropolis. Let him travel through the land and learn his error. Wherever he may go, it is over costly railways, in costly cars, or over smooth turnpikes with trimmed edges, such as, in other countries, might be the walks in a rich man's pleasure-grounds. Noble edifices strike his eye at every turn of the road. Rich fields are cultivated in the very perfection of agriculture, and large towns pre- sent themselves at intervals of but a few miles. In these towns he still finds the wealth of England. If they are in an agricultural district, the church, the par- sonage, and the squire's abode are all on a superior scale. If they are in a manufacturing district, his very imagination staggers under the idea of the vast capital employed in the thousand factories and ten thousand houses around him. Go where he will, he cannot es- cape fiom the evidences of the wealth of England. They are the strong points of light in the foreground of I17 ( WRETCHEDNESS OF THE MASS. the picture. They must strike the eye of the most has- ty observer: they may so absorb his attention that he will not notice the gloomy background at all. And yet, if the common voice of society, the state- ments of the public press, and the official reports made to Parliament are to be believed, the splendid edifice of England's wealth rests upon the darkest foundations, in the hopeless, helpless, and almost fathomless wretched- ness of the mass of the people, upon which national glory was ever founded. Nor is the curiosity of prying foreigners needed to pick out the details of this wretch- edness, or their prejudice to exaggerate its horrors. The official papers of the nation have abounded for years with hideous accounts of the want, the immorali- ty, the ignorance, and the degradation of the labouring classes of England. Nor is this story of misery told only of any one portion of the labouring population. It is true of the rural districts, and of the commercial as well as the manufacturing towns. The statements which follow are made with unfeign- ed regret. Founded, as they are, upon official docu- melnts alone, they cannot be charged with prejudice or exaggeration. Most of them are drawn from a report on the " Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Popula- tion of Great Britain, presented to both Houses of Par- liament by command of her Majesty, July, 1842." Many other documents are extant, containing facts enough to illustrate the wretchedness of these poor peo- ple; but as this report has been recently made, and has received high commendation in England for its accura- cy and impartiality, I prefer to quote mainly from it. It might be supposed that a report of this kind would only exhibit insulated cases ; exceptions, not the rule. That this is not the case, I wvas sadly convinced by my 177 DWELLINGS OF THlE WVORKING CLASSES. own personal observation in England, as well as by the language of the report itself. "If only particular in- stances or some groups of individual cases be adduced, the erroneous impression might be created that they are cases of comparatively infrequent occurrence. But the following tabular return will give a sufficiently correct conception of the extent of the evils in question." And again: " The various forms of + disease caused or aggravated, or propagated chiefly among the labouring classes by atmospheric impurities produced by decom- posing animal and vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and over-crowded owellings, prevail among the population in every part of the kingdom, whether dwelling in separate houses, in rural villages, in small towns, or in the larger towns, as they have been found to prevail in the lowest districts of the me- tropolis." The first class of extracts which follow give a view of the poverty of the habitations, and general condition of the labouring classes. " In the manufacturing towns of England, most of which have enlarged with great rapidity, the additions have been made without regard to either the personal comfort of the inhabitants or the necessities which con- gregation requires." " Of the five hundred and eighty- six streets of Leeds, sixty-eight only are paved by the town; the remainder are either paved by owners, or partly paved, or are totally unpaved, with the surfaces broken in every direction, and ashes and filth of every description accumulated upon many of them."t In Stockport there is a locality called " Shepherd's Buildings," containing " forty-four houses in two rows, and twenty-two cellars all of the same size. The cel- Report, p. 1. t Ibid., p. 40. 178 MANCHEISTER. lars are let off as separate dwellings; tnese are (lark, damp, and very low, not more than six feet between the ceiling and floor. The street between the two rows is seven yards wide, in the centre of which is the common gutter, or, more properly, sink, into which all sorts of refuse is thrown. In many of these dwellings there are four persons in one bed."+ In Manchester, "of six hundred and eighty-seven streets inspected by a voluntary association of that town! two hundred and forty-eight were reported as being unpaved, one hundred and twelve ill-ventilated, three hundred and fifty-two as containing stagnant pools, heaps of refuse, ordure," c. Of the district of Little Ireland, in the same town, it is stated that, "in some of the streets and courts abutting, the sewers are all in a most wretched state, and quite inadequate to carry off the surface water, not to mention the slops thrown down by the inhabitants in about two hundred houses. The privies are in a most disgraceful state, inaccessible front filth, and too few for the accommodation of the number of people, the average number being two to two hun- dred and fifty people. The upper rooms are, with few exceptions, very dirty, and the cellars much worse, all damp, and some occasionally overflowed. The cellars consist of two rooms on a floor, each nine or ten feet square, sonme inhabited by ten persons, others by more; in many the people have no beds, and keep each other warm by close stowage, on shavings, straw, c.: a change of linen or clothes is an exception to the com- mon practice. Many of the back rooms, where they sleep, have no other means of ventilation than from the front rooms. Some of the cellars on the lower ground were once filled up as uninhabitable, but one is now Report, p. 18. .179 occupied by a weaver, and he has stopped up the drain with clay to prevent the water flowing from it into his cellar, and mops up the water every morning." " The expense of cleansing the streets of the township of Man- chester is pound;5000 per annum. For this sum the first class of streets, viz., the most opulent and the large thoroughfares, are cleansed once a week, the second once a fortnight, and the third once a month. But this provision leaves untouched the courts, alleys, and pla- ces where the poorest classes live, and where the cleansing should be daily."t Says Sir Charles Shaw, "I sent an inspector of police to examine a lodging- house. He came back to state that he had never wit- nessed such a sight. He found in one room, totally destitute of furniture, three men and two women lying on the bare floor, without straw, and with bricks only for their pillows. I observed that I supposed they were drunk. ' Yes,' said the inspector, 'they were; and I found the lodging-house keeper himself in a tolerable bed, and in another room were bundles of fresh straw. I blamed the man for not giving the straw to his lodg- ers. He answered, "I keep that for the people who prefer purchasing it to gin: those above stairs prefer the gin."' It is, I find, a common thing here for lodging- house keepers to have straw for sale.". In Glasgow, the poorest people have their abodes in the wynds, or narrow streets and courts, because lodg- ing is there cheapest. Dr. Arnott says, "We exam- ined these wynds, and to give an idea of the whole vicinity, I may state as follows. We entered a dirty, low passage, like a house door, which led from the street though the first house to a square court immedi- ately behind, which court, with the exception of a nar- Report, p. 39. t Ibid., 53. 4 Ibid., 135. ISO GLASGOW'. LUJGI NG-HO UEES.1 row path round it, leading to another long passage through a second house, was occupied entirely as a dung receptacle of the most disgusting kind. Beyond this court, the second passage led to a second square court, occupied in the same way by its dunghill; and from this court there was a third passage, leading to a third court and third dungheap. The interiors of these houses, and their inmates, corresponded with the exte- riors. We saw half-dressed wretches crowding to- gether to be warm; and in one bed, although in the middle of the day, several women were imprisoned under a blanket, because as many others, who had on their backs all the articles of dress that belonged to the party, were then out of doors in the streets. This pic- ture is so shocking that, without ocular proof, one would be disposed to doubt the possibility of the facts ; and yet there is, perhaps, no old town in Europe that does not furnish parallel examples." The reader may desire to know something more of the lodging-houses referred to in preceding extracts. The constant influx of poor labourers fiom all parts of the kingdom into the manufacturing towns keeps the accommodations always below the demand, so that multitudes make their lodgings nightly in houses speci- ally used for the purpose. "To those who have not visited them, no description can convey anything like an accurate idea of the abominable state of these dens of filth, disease, and wretchedness." " In some of these houses [in Manchester], as many as six or eight beds are contained in a single room; in others, where the rooms are smaller, the number is necessarily less; but it seems to be the invariable practice in these ' keepers of fever beds,' as the proprietors were styled by Dr. Report, p. 24. VOL. II.-Q 181 Ferriar, to cram as many beds into each room as it can possibly hold; and they are often placed so close to each other that there is scarcely room to pass between them. The scene which these places present at night is one of the most lamentable description: the crowded state of the bed, filled promiscuously with men, women, and children; the floor covered over with the filthy and ragged clothes they have just put off, and with their various bundles and packages, containing all the prop- erty they possess, mark the depraved and blunted state of their feelings, and the moral and social disorder which exists. Even if the place be inspected during the day, the state of things is not much better. Several persons will very commonly be found in bed; one is probably sick, a second is perhaps sleeping away the effects of the previous night's debauch, while another is probably dozing away his time because he has no employment, or is taking his rest now because he ob- tains his living from some night work." Of Newcastle, Sir John Walsham writes: " I have frequently had occasion to complain to the magistrates against the lodging-houses taking in so many lodgers; but the law is so defective in this respect that they could render me no assistance. I went to see a man very ill of the smallpox. The house contained four small rooms, and was situated in a back yard, in a very nar- row, confined, dirty lane. There were forty people in the house, and they were not all in that lodged there. Four months ago I went into a room in the same yard; the room was very dirty; it was nine feet broad by fif- teen feet long, and contained four beds, in which slept two men, four women, and thirteen children. I found in one of the beds two children very ill of Report, p. 359 182 N EWCASTRLE. AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. scarlet fever; in another, a child ill of the measles; in another, a child that had died of the measles the day before; and in a fourth, a woman and her infant, born two days before; and the only space between the four beds was occupied by a tinker, hard at wor!i." The extracts heretofore given refer exclusively to places in the manufacturing and mining districts. The condition of the agricultural labourers is no better. The report gives details in regard to Devonshire, Dorset- shire, and other rural counties, quite as painful as those I have presented. In Dorset, a case is stated where "a house, formerly a poor-house, was occupied by nearly fifty persons upon the ground floor; the rooms neither boarded nor paved, and generally damp; some of them occupied by two families. The up-stairs rooms are small and low, and separated from each other by boards only. Eleven persons slept in one room." " The fol- lowing shocking case occurred in [Mr. Fox's] practice. In a family consisting of six persons, two had fever; the mud floor of their cottage was at least one foot below the lane; it consisted of one small room only, in the cen- trc of which stood a foot-ladder reaching to the edge of a platform which extended over nearly half the room, and upon which were placed two beds. The head of one of these beds stood within six inches of the edge of the platform, and in this bed one of my unfortunate pa- tients, a boy about eleven years old, was sleeping with his mother, and in a fit of delirium leaped over the head of his bed, and fell to the ground below. He lived only a few hours after the accident."t The Rev. Dr. Gilly, canon of Durham, says of the dwellings of the border peasantry, that " they are built of rubble, or unhewn stone loosely cemented; and from Report, p. 362, t Ibid., p. S, 9. 183 age or oadness of materials, the walls look as if they would scarcely hold together." " The general charac- ter of the best of the oldfashioned hinds' cottages in this neighbourhood is bad at the best. The average size of these sheds is about twenty-four by sixteen. They are dark and unwholesome. The windows do not open, and many of them are not larger than twenty inches by sixteen; and into this place are crowded eight, ten, or even twelve persons."+ Nor are these miseries confined to the manufacturing and agricultural districts. The most flourishing non- manufacturing towns abound with them. In Liverpool, "the cottages [of the labouring classes] are generally built with a view more to the per centage of the land- lord than to the accommodation of the poor. The houses generally consist of three apartments, viz., the day-room and two bedrooms, one above the other. The cellar is let off; either by the landlord or tenant, to a more improvident class of labourers. The rooms above the day-room are often let separately by the tenant to lodgers, varying in number from one or two to six or eight individuals in each." " In 1836-7, I at- tended a family of thirteen, twelve of whom had typhus fever, without a bed in the cellar, without straw or tim- ber shavings, frequent substitutes."t " From the ab- sence of drains and sewers, there are, of course, few cellars entirely free from damp; manv of those in low situations are literally inundated after a fall of rain. There are upward of 8000 inhabited cellars in Liver- pool, and I estimate their occupants at from 35,000 to 40,000." "The mean chances of life in Liverpool, where one in twenty-five of the population are annual- ly attacked with fever, appear to be still lower than in 184 LIVERPOOL. Report, p. 22. f Report, p, 18, 19, MORAL DEPRAVITY. Manchester, Leeds, or among the silk weavers in Beth- nal Green." II. I shall now offer a few instances of the moral de- pravity which ensues from the condition of the labour- ing classes in England. In Leighton, " there are a number of cottages with- out sleeping-rooms separate from the day-rooms, and frequently three or four families are found occupy- ing the same bedroom, and young men and women promiscuously sleeping in the same apartment. " In a cellar in Pendleton, there were three beds in two apartments, without a door between them, in one of which a man and his wife slept; in another, a man, his wife, and child; and in a third, two unmarried females. In Hull I have met with cases somewhat similar. In a cellar in Liverpool, I found a mother and her grown-up daughters sleeping on a bed of chaff, on the ground, in one corner of the cellar, and in the other corner three sailors had their bed. I have met with instances of a man, his wife, and his wife's sister sleeping in the same bed together. I have frequently met with instances in which the par- ties themselves have traced their own depravity to these circumstances. In all of these cases the sense of decency was obliterated."t " There is a con- siderable number of lodging-houses in Newcastle, some of which are frequently occupied by from fifteen to twenty persons each. In these cases the most deplo- rable scenes of profligacy and depravity are met with, both sexes being crowded together in a manner inju- rious to both health and morals." It will be observed that the above statements em- brace agricultural counties and commercial towns, as Report, p. 31, 159. t Report, p. 121, 125, 362. QX 185 well as rural districts. It appears clear that these sev- eral portions of the population are about on a par in point of degradation and immorality. Mr. Baines, of Leeds, in his essay on the " Manufacturing Districts in England," quotes, from a volume of " Reports on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture," made to Parliament, as follows: " The morality of the women in general of the agricultural labouring class cannot be considered as high. A state of ignorance affecting the daily welfare and comforts of their families is nearly universally prevalent." " It is quite common to meet with boys engaged on farms who cannot read or write. The unity of God, a future state, the number of months in the year, are matters not universally known." There is " a particular defi- ciency in the feelings of the women as to chastity: in many instances they seem hardly to comprehend or value it as a virtue." Mr. Gee, of Brothertoft, in Lin- colnshire, says that " field work is a very bad thing for girls: out of fifty of them there are forty-nine cases of delinquency." It is not, of course, to be supposed that all the labour- ing population are as degraded as these specimens. Without doubt there are many, very many, decent and religious people among them; but yet it is lamentably evident, from the vast amount of proof afforded, that Mr. Baines maintains that, in point of morality, the agricultural popula- tion are decidedly below the manufacturing, and offers the following table as proof: 1I1eitini-te Children Proportion of ll9gitin-.et Countie Population in 1341. registered in 3 year,, Children to lOut) hnhabi- 1839.40_41. t.an,. West Riding of Yorkshire 1,154,924 3382 nearly 3 Lancashire . . 1,667,064 6172 31 Norfolk.412,621 2422 nearly 6 Herefordshire. . . 114,438 681 6 DEPRAVITY. 186 the general condition of the people, in point of morality, is wretched indeed. III. In order to exhibit the effects of the condition of the labouring classes upon health and life, I present a few specimens of tables which abound in the Sanitary Report, showing the ratio of mortality in different class- cs of the population. In Derby the proportions are as exhibited in the fol- lowing table: No. of Deaths. Occupation. A. Age of D.c'. 10 Professional persons or gentry 49 125 Tradesmen . . . . 38 752 Labourers and artisans. . . . . 21 In Manchester: Professional persons and gentry, and their families . 38 Tradesmen and their families .20 Mechanics, labourers, and their families . 17 In Liverpool: No of Deaths. 137 Gentry, professional persons, c. ....35 1738 Tradesman and their families 22 5597 Labourers, mechanics, servents, c. 15 It is to be remembered that this official account of the condition of the labouring classes of England was not drawn up with special reference to a period of dull trade or unusual distress. At such periods, we are to add to the miseries already recited, nakedness, want of food, and, in many instances, starvation. This was the case during my first visit to England, in 1842, as I have before mentioned in my notice of the outbreak in the manufacturing districts. The following statement, along with many others equally painful, appeared in a Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners, printed by order of the House of Commons. It is taken from a circular is- sued by the mayor, clergymen, magistrates, and princi- pal manufacturers of Stockport. "The borough of Stockport, the working population 187 WO0RTAUlTY. of which is engaged almost exclusively in the cotton manufacture, has suffered, in common with other towns, from its general and long-continued depression. It is believed that there are, altogether, about five thousand operatives, of various trades, unable to obtain employ- ment. The consequences of this suspension of labour are extensive loss and suffering among all classes de- pendant upon trade, and unexampled distress and pri- vation among the working population. Families, two or three together, are crowding into one house, or leaving their cottages for cellars ; some are quitting their native land; numbers, having exchanged all but the last articles of their wearing apparel for the means of sustaining life, are on the verge of destitution; honest men, willing to work, are compelled, with their entire families, to become street mendicants, or to live, day by day, on the precarious charity of their neighbours; and besides an increase of disease, arising, in a great meas- ure, from a deficiency of food, many, it is to be feared, are literally starving to death." I find the following conclusions drawn by the Secre- tary of the Poor-Law Commission from the evidence before him, and presented in the ninth chapter of the Sanitary Report, before quoted: "That the annual loss of life from filth and bad ven- tilation [in England and Scotland] is greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern timnes. " That the ravages of epidemics and other diseases do not diminish, but tend to increase the pressure of population. (This is a remarkable and universal fact.) "' That in the districts where the mortality is the greatest, the births are not only sufficient to replace the numbers removed by death, but to add to the population. 188 CONCLUS6101N,. CONCLUSIONS. 189 "That the younger population, bred up under noxious physical agencies, is inferior, in physical organization and general health, to a population preserved from the presence of such agencies. " That these adverse circumstances tend to produce an adult population short-lived, improvident, reckless, and intemperate, and with habitual avidity for sensual gratifications. "; That these habits lead to the abandonment of all the conveniences and decencies of life, and especially lead to the overcrowding of their homes, which is de- structive to the morality as well as the health of large classes of both sexes." Such is the condition of the labouring population of England, as stated by native authorities. EVILM OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER XIV. EVILS OF ENGLAND. THE condition of the extremes of society in England has been indicated, to some extent, in the preceding pages. While the lowest class is .wretched beyond conception, the highest is in the most favourable cir- cumstances possible, so far as what men consider the goods of this life are concerned. Their circumstances allow the fullest physical development. Considered in this light only, the aristocracy of England, male and fe- male, is, perhaps, the finest race of human beings in the world. They have, also. the best opportunities of in- tellectual and social cultivation. All the (liscoveries of science and all the products of art are at their com- mand. The treasures of a thousand libraries are theirs, with leisure to use them if they will. Their constant intercourse with the best society in the world gives grace and polish of manners. So far as outward things go, then, while the labouring classes of England are at the depth of human misery, the aristocratic classes are at the height of human happiness. But between these there is a large body which may be called the middle class in respect to the two ex- tremes. Here may be classed professional men who have not reached distinction or preferment, whether in the Church, in medicine, at the bar, or in the army or navy, many merchants and manufacturers, and the great majority of shopkeepers, all of whom may be said to be just within the pale of solvency. Farmers and graziers 190 are classed with shopkeepers in the Sanitary Report before quoted. The cormpetitioni-in trade among the shopkeepers, and for land among the farmers, reduces their profits to the lowest possible point; and it is only by the most extraordinary good fortune that one in a thousand can secure a competency. The contrast of splendour and squalor presented by the highly artificial society of England excites the in- dignation of most American travellers and politicians. It might, perhaps, be better for us calmly to inquire into its causes, and gather, from the bitter experience of others, some lessons of wisdom for the conduct of our own affairs. The great estates of England were created by Will- iam. the Conqueror, by the distribution among his fol- lowers of confiscated property, and the introduction of the feudal law. Amid all the changes of the English government, these estates have been preserved. In the course of time the yeomanry or farming interest grew up, a body not possessed of lands, but holding by long leases under the great proprietors. Under these, the agricultural labourers constituted the mass of the peo- ple. The present operative class of England is of more recent origin. The introduction of manufactures, the invention of machinery, and, finally, the application of steam to machinery, called for the labour of a vast mul- titude of persons in the employments thus created, but, at the same time, limited their gains only to the bare means of a subsistence. The consequence has been, the manufacturing labourers are almost in the form of a caste, while many of the manufacturing capitalists- cotton lords, as they are called-are in possession of immense wealth, and of the means of increasing it al- most indefinitely. CONTRASTS. 191 RISE OF MANUFACTURES. The extension of manufactures in England has, of course, greatly increased the commerce of the country, and this, in turn, has caused a vast extension of the na- val power of the state. After all, the glory of Great Britain depends upon her navy: her navy would be nothing without her commerce: her commerce depends almost wholly upon her manufactures. It is the interest of the British aristocracy to maintain them all. Manu- factures and commerce have given rise to great mer- cantile wealth, which is in the hands of the few, because the operations on which it is founded require the outlay of much capital. Formerly, the cottages of England were not, as now, mere huts to shelter weary labourers after day of toil, but homes of happy and industrious families. The spinning-wheel gave out its cheerful hum, the hand-loom produced its fabric, and the nearest town supplied the market. This was " merry England." All this has passed away. The towns in which machinery for manufactures was first introduced have suddenly be- come densely-populated cities. High wages seduced the agricultural population from their poorly-paid toils. It was found that the lighter parts of the processes wrought out by machinery could be conducted by chil- dren as well as adults ; and parents consented to part with their offspring at eight or ten years of age for a livelihood. The sheltered work and comparative free- dom of the factory was more attractive to young girls than the drudgery of field labour or the restraints of domestic service. Multitudes of young persons have thus been thrown into the lodging-houses of the manu- facturing cities without education or parental restraints, and in this new heathendom have grown up in immo- rality and degradation. 192 The rapid increase of population has enhanced the value of landed property by an unprecedented demand for the means of subsistence. Lands in some parts of the country have risen in value, independently of any foresight or outlay on the part of their proprietors, from two hundred to a thousand per cent. The landholders are thus enriched by the results of the system which has reduced the poor to the humblest level of humanity. But the poor rates and mendicity have steadily in- creased. Six or seven millions sterling a year (more than the an- nual expense of the United States government) are rais- ed by poor rates, and dispensed to keep the labouring population from starving. The amount given to mendi- cants annually, throughout the kingdom, in private char- ity, is, perhaps, half as much. The progress of society, under the present system, tends to increase with rapid- ity the number and poverty of the poor, as well as slowly to augment the number, and rapidly the wealth, of the rich. The latter class absorb the few of the mid- dle rank who acquire fortunes in trade. while the former receive into their ranks the much greater number of the unsuccessful in the middle class. Those that re- main, combining small capital with unwearied industry, are called by some English writers, with great proprie- ty, the uneasy class. The " condition of England" question forces itself upon the attention of every thinking man in the kingdom. There is unanimity among all classes as to the unsound- ness of the present state of things; there is none as to the The number of strolling beggars in England, in the face of severe legal penalties, is absolutely startling. A writer in the Edinburgh Review states that 638 mendicants passed through thirteen small towns in a single day in 1841. Vol. IJ.-R PAUPERISM. 193 mode of relief. No system will effectually remedy ex- isting evils that does not contemplate a gradual re-dis- tribution of property. The first remedy should be the abolition of the law of entail, which would gradually distribute the soil into small portions, owned by those who should dwell upon it and cultivate it. The policy by which large landed estates are tied up by the entail, and transmitted of ne- cessity to the eldest son, is the root of the whole evil. It is the foundation of the hereditary nobility, and creates the necessity of maintaining the magnificent church es- tablishment, and the armies and navies, that the ap- pointments in these may provide for the younger sons of the aristocracy. Hence it is necessary to raise a large revenue, and as the power to lay and collect the taxes is with the aristocracy, they are so laid as to fall mainly on the middle and poorer classes, to the total exemption, in some material cases, of the rich. If we except occasional cottages with their acre or two in the neighbourhood of large towns. and the prop- erties which belong to the Church and corporations, there are not in England, with a population of seventeen millions, twenty-five thousand landed properties. The property in the cities and towns is almost all on leases, and at their termination all the improvements revert to the proprietor of the land. Amid the crowds of Lon- don you shall scarcely meet with a freeholder: the whole population is a tenantry under some condition or This is generally the case with public buildings, and even the churches of Dissenters and Methodists, with few exceptions. The City Road C hapel is on a lease, which wilt expire in a few years, and then it becomes the prop. erty of a nobleman or gentleman, upon whose will the trustees must depend for a renewal of the lease and the terms of the renewal. Whole quarters of London have been built up with magnificent houses on leases of from thir- ty to fifty years, all which revert to the noble landed proprietors, producing for them an income almost incredible. 194 ENTAIL. DIVISION OF PROPERTY. other. And you may travel through the country and scarcely meet an owner of the soil once in fifty miles. All are tenants. There is no such class in England as our farmers; men who own the soil they cultivate; men who are free and independent, and feel themselves to be so. The absolute dependence of the rural popu- lation on the landed proprietors renders them servile and mean-spirited to a degree unknown in America among the white population, and scarcely among the slaves of the South. And as there is a great excess of labourers over the number required for the cultivation of the land, their wages fall below the means of subsist- ence, and hence their habitations are bad, and their ed- ucation totally neglected. Under these circumstances, they flock to the manufacturing towns, and fall into the condition already described. The abolition of the laws of primogeniture and of en- tail would not cause the division of property at once, but would commence it by distributing the estates equal- ly to the children. Property would be farther divided and transferred to other families by purchase, and thus the way would be opened for the wealthy merchant and manufacturer to pass into the independent rural class, and gradually, by farther subdivisions, men of moderate means would become proprietors; and thus a substantial middle class would be created, in whom the government of the country would vest, instead of in the aristocracy, as now. This would purify the elec- tions, as there would not be any individuals, as now, re- ceiving an annual income of more than a million of dol- lars, and by their great wealth able to control the elec- tions, under the Reform Bill, which gives a vote to each man paying a clear rent of pound;10 per annum. This bill was thought to be a great boon to the country, and so 195 DIVISION OF PROPERTY. it was to the manufacturing districts; but exactly the reverse to the rural. Since its passage the great land- ed proprietors have adopted a new policy. As the long leases and those for life expire they refuse to renew them, but divide the land into smaller portions, which may be rented each for ten pounds and upward, year by year, at the will of the proprietors, thus increasing the number of voters on their soil, and, at the same time, placing them directly at their mercy. And as a ma- jority of the members of Parliament come from the ru- ral districts, or are returned by the influence of wealthy families, it follows that the House of Commons is neces- sarily in the interest of the great landed proprietors. This enables them so to mould and administer the gov- ernment as to protect themselves, and to provide for their younger children at the expense of the people, on whom they lay the great bulk of the public burdens. The immediate evil which oppresses the people is vi- cious and unequal legislation, and this is inherent in the system of large landed estates kept together and even in- creased by the laws of primogeniture and entail. There is no permanent relief for the poor people of England ex- cept in their abolition, which would gradually place the legislation of the country in the hands of the people, and make the House of Commons their true representatives. This would secure the permanent prosperity of her people, but would probably, at the same time, reduce the glory and power of the Empire. As it respects the vicious and unequal legislation of the aristocracy, I may mention the general fact that, whatever is the most indispensable to the people, is most exorbitantly taxed, because the articles must be had at any price; while luxuries, which belong only to the rich, are taxed but iiglhtly ; and scarcely is there an instanee 196 OPPRESSIVE 'TAXE',4. on the statute-beuk where the tax is laid equally, and yet the scale is so ingeniously arranged, that it requires a little skill to detect its shameful inequality. The corn- mon people do not see it: they feel the pressure, but do not fully comprehend the cause. Let us look at some of the duties on imports. Suga r, al article of prime necessity, pays a duty of 24s. oal the cwt., without reference to quality. By this Cnor- mous duty, equal to a hundred per cent. on the vXaIle of the article, the poorest classes are nearly cut off froM the use of sugar ; and what they do use, of the coarsest kind, is taxed as much as the prime quality used by the rich. This oppressive tax weighs most heavily upon the poor of Ireland. Since 1836 a duty of 2s. Id. per pound has be en cha 'ged upon all teas, without exception, entered for homie consumption in Great Britain. The poor labour- Ci'. who boys Bohiea worth is. a pound, pays two hun- dred per cent. duty ; the shopkeeper, who can afford to buy souchong worth 2s., pays one hundred per cent.; while the rich man can drink his gunpowder, worth 4g., by paying only fifty per cent. duty; one quarter of that paiid by the poor labourer. TFhe injustice of the window-tax has long been a Sub- ject of complaint. The scale is skilfully arranged so ts to lay the burden of the tax on the middle classes, and to favour the rich. A house with sixteen windows pays pound;3 18s. Gd. duty-nearly five shillings per win- dow. The scale rises gradually to thirty-nine windows, which pay pound;13 12s.-nearly seven shillings each. The middle classes generally dwell in houses with from twenty to forty windows, and up to the latter point the rate of tax increases. But as soon as the houses of the rich and the nobility are likely to be touched, the it 2 1 '97 INIQUITOUS TAXATION. scale descends rapidly-by five windows at a time: thus a house of fifty windows pays between six and seven shillings each; with a hundred windows, between five and six shillings; and so on up to one hundred and eighty windows, when each pays 5s. 2d. Above this number, when the tax would reach the palaces of the aristocracy, each window pays Is. 6d., though it be made of mahogany and plate glass, and worth pound;100; while the commoner who adds the thirty-ninth window of ordinary glass, must pay seven shillings a year tax for it. According to this iniquitous scale, no reference is had to the size or value of the window, or of the house to which it belongs; and a nobleman's mansion, with three or four hundred large and costly windows, pays scarcely one quarter of the tax that a snug cottage of thirty-five or forty windows of moderate size and plain materials pays. In many cases, if the real cost of the windows were the test, the disproportion would be twenty times as great. The richer the man, the less his tax: this seems to be the general principle of Eng- lish taxation. Of many instances of iniquitous taxes, I shall notice only two more, the probate and stamp duties. If a no- bleman die and leave a landed estate worth pound;25,000 a year, his heir, no matter how distant the relationship, takes possession without paying a shilling. But if a merchant die and leave an estate in money yielding pound;25,000 a year, his heir, without a will, comes into pos- session by paying from five to ten per cent. duty on the amount of the legacy-not on the annual income of it; and a heavy probate duty besides, amounting in all from E50,000 to pound;75,000 duty, accordingly as the heir was a near or distant relation, and whether the deceased left a will or not. The arrangement of this tax is such as 198 to pass the landed property of the kingdom to the heirs successively, without any probate or legacy duty what- ever ; while the property of the merchant and nmanu- facturer passes to their heirs with an enormous deduc- tiOn in the shape of a legacy and probate tax. The same iniquity is found in the scale of the stamp duties. On a receipt for five to ten pounds the duty is three pence ; on a receipt for pound;200, four shillings; while one for ten thousand, or even a, million sterling costs only ten shillings ! Thus the shopkeeper, in his petty transactions, pays a thousand per cent. more for his receipt than the capitalist for his of a million. The use of these stamps is ensured by a statute that makes payment null unless the receipt is stamped. " The prin- ciple on which the British Stamp Act, as respects the duty on the alienation of land, is founded, is monstrous. The duty is graduated contra valorem ; the smaller the value of the property, the higher, in general, the per centage of duty. Thus, a conveyance, where the price is pound;20, pays 1; where it is 150, 2; where it is pound;E6000, 65. To tax a man who sells a property worth pound;20 at five per cent. of its value, and the man who sells one worth pound;6000 at little more than one per cent.-this is to make poverty the basis of taxation." To what has been said, the crowning oppression of the poor is yet to be added, and that is the duty on foreign corn, and other articles of common food. In general terms, it may be said the price of bread in England is double what it is in France; and the differ- ence is still greater in comparison with some of the countries of Germany. This is owing chiefly to the heavy duty imposed on foreign grain imported into England, which is a bounty to the landed proprietor; CORN LAMVS. 199 but exactly in the same proportion a tax on the con- sumer. From this series of heavy taxes, so adjusted as to fall chiefly on the labouring people, it results, that though a man may make six dollars a week in the mills, a girl four, and children over ten years of age each two. in a fair state of trade, yet when they pay their rents, and purchase their articles of subsistence, taxed exorbitantly, as we have seen, the result is, that they are still pressed with want. When trade is slack the pressure is greater, and when very dull, the condition of the labourers is distressing in the extreme. The manufacturing and commercial classes look for relief to the repeal of the corn-laws, by which the labourer would be enabled to subsist at not more than two thirds of his present ex- pense, and yet, by a great extension of trade, by allow- ing foreign nations to pay in corn and other products of their soil for English manufactures, full work would be constantly afforded them. But will the English aris- tocracy ever consent to the repeal, by which they would lose from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of their income The progress of the Anti-corn-law League seems to indicate that the repeal may be enforced. Should the Repeal League acquire sufficient political weight to hold the balance of power between the two great political parties, its objects may be accomplished; because either party would obtain or retain power at any price; only let it be demonstrated that a repeal of the corn laws is essential to obtaining or retaining the government, and either party will declare for repeal. Should they be repealed, we are too far away to come An Anti-repeal League of the landed proprietors has been recently orga- nized. The battle, therefore, is fairly begun. 1110 CORwN LAWS. WANT OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. into competition with Germany in supplying 'he corn narket of England, unless we shall have advantages by special reciprocal treaties. There can be no permanent elevation and improve- ment of the labouring population of England until a national system of common education is devised, in which the children of the poor shall be educated at the public expense. If the Established Church would con- sent to a plan of education in which Dissenters and Methodists might equally participate, the whole youth- fill population of England might be brought immediately under efficient instruction, as far as money and teachers are concerned. But should such an equitable plan be devised and enacted by Parliament, there stilJ remains one very great difficulty, the want of decent clothes and sufficient time on the part of the children. When trade is brisk they might have decent clothes, but then the mills would require all their time, or so much of it as to render them unfit to learn in the evening, after ten hours' close labour during the day. It is necessary to place the labouring population and the state of trade in such a condition that the parents and older branches of the family may be able to support themselves and the younger branches too, while the latter shall regu- larly attend the schools until they are fourteen years old. And this must be required of them by law, as in some of the states on the Continent. But how can the labouring population and the state of trade be placed in such a condition The move- ment must begin at home, by equalizing the public bur- dens so as to make the whole productive property of the kingdom, and the luxuries imported. pay, adl valo- rem, the public expense. This will produce a sufficient 2)01 revenue, and allow the repeal of all taxes on the arti- cles necessary to the comfortable subsistence of the poor. Of course the corn-laws would be repealed, which alone would be a saving of many millions of dol- lars annually on the expense of bread alone. This pol- icy would accomplish the object, provided constant employment could be had, and what are now called fair wages maintained. These would depend on the pro- tective policy of other nations, a policy which the conl- duct of England forced upon them, and has heretofore compelled them to maintain in self-defence. As they improved in their productions, less was wanted from England; and their success exceeding their own ex)ect- ations, they very naturally conceived the idea of redu- cing her wealth, distressing her people, and humbling her power, by excluding her manufactures. The con- sequence is, France is increasing her tariff, Germany has entered extensively into a national Customs Union, with Prussia at its head; and the United States, by no- cessitv, has bcen obliged to increase the tariff, and must continue it, even if against her will. What motives, then, can England offer to other na- tions sufficient to induce them to sacrifice their immense manufacturing interests, the growth of many years, by entering now into free trade She has forced them into their present artificial state of protection, and they are not yet strong enough to compete with her on the prin- ciples of free trade. Her machinery is equal to a hun- dred mnillions of hands. She could manufacture for the world, but then the world would have to pay her for it; and what would she want in return but the deficiency, chiefly, in her bread-stuffs A moment's reflection will satisfy any one that this would go but a very little way towards balancing the account for her manufactures, 202 TARIFFS. and the deficiency would have to be supplied in cash. It would require a long time, and a gradual and recip- rocal reduction, to bring in free trade among nations, nor could it be established at all except on the basis of unlimited reciprocity. This England cannot hope for. It seems to me, then, that her only hope for continued prosperity is in her colonies and foreign possessions, to the first of which she should induce some half a million of her people to go annually. This would reduce her surplus population about two hundred and fifty thou- sand a year, and create a market abroad, from which she would receive, in return, a supply of bread-stuffs for her labouring population. After reviewing the condition of England, the Ameri- can naturally adverts to his own country, and asks, May the same results be expected among us Certainly not. We are not acting under the same conditions. There is no privileged aristocracy in our country who make the laws, and by this means lay the public burdens on the labouring population, and fill their own coffers. There is no excess of capital to combine with labour to such an extent as to cut off the possibility of the intelli- gent and active artisan becoming himself a proprietor and capitalist. There is not an excess of population over the ability of our soil to support it, thus compelling the people to resort to the manufactories for subsist- ence, and at prices under the control of the proprietors. But, above all, our soil is not owned by a few thousand large landed proprietors, who, by the law of entail, may transmit it to their eldest children, thus reducing the active population everywhere to the state of ten- antry. On the contrary, in the agricultural parts of our country it is as rare to meet a man who is a tenant on the farm he cultivates, as it is to see the face of a landed 203 AMtERICA. proprietor amid the thousands one meets daily in trav- elling in England. The great excess of our soil over our population acts like a safety-valve to our manufac- turing operations, and effectually prevents the produc- tion of such a population as the operatives of Great Britain. Besides, the general diffusion of education among our operative population is a material element in our favour. Compare the condition of the manufac- turing population of Lowell and Lynn with that of England. There is not a people on the earth that can manufacture so much to their own advantage as we, provided the system is not forced, but sufficiently en- couraged to develop skill and enterprise equally with the same developments in the agricultural and com- mercial portions of the community. A just combination of these three great interests, containing as they do the elements of permanent independence, is the only basis on which the true prosperity of our country can be founded. Under the relations which at present subsist among the different nations, it is folly in the extreme for us to talk of free trade. Free trade principles are prac- ticable only under perfect reciprocity in everything be- tween the nations mutually practising them. 204 F'REE TrRADE. IRELAND. CHAPTER XV. IRELAND. Steamer to Belfast.-Shearers.-Belfast.-Sunday.-Primitive Methodists. -Abundant Popul atio n.-Trade.-Lord Donegal .-Antrim.-Round Tow- ers.-Opinions as to their Design.-Jaunting Cars.-Cottages.-The Gi- ant's Causeway. ON a fine evening in September we embarked in the steamer Aurora at Glasgow, and took leave of Scot- land. After a short delay at Greenock, we stretched away across the North Sea. Though the night was stormy, the noble steamer wrestled gallantly with the waves, and carried herself so well that we slept soundly through the night; and when we rose at eight in the morninz, we were in the Lough of Belfast, with the ,green fields of the Emerald Isle on either hand. In a couple of hours we came alongside the quay at Bel- fast, and had an Irish greeting from a fearful host of porters, loungers, and labourers. But they did not all come down to honour our landing. Many of their friends were on board, returning from their shearing tour in Scotland, and the crowds of ragged men, wom- en, and children on the quay were waiting to welcome them home again. What we call reaping they denom- inate shearing in some parts of Great Britain, and well nay it be so called, for the stalk is cut so close to the ground that you could hardly tell any had grown there; and after the operation the field looks smooth like a lawn, as the young grass, which had been concealed by the crop, shows itself above the short stubble. The shearers must almost break their backs in stooping, or else work on their knees. VOL. II.-S 205 We had been recommended to stop at the Donegal Arms, and though our countryman Willis did not give the house a very good name, we concluded that we might fare worse rather than better, and accordingly took lodgings there. The place was not so bad as it might have been, after all. To be sure, the accommo- dations were but tolerable, and the charges were high; and the house was such a labyrinth of crooked passages and walls built at all kinds of angles, that it was hardly possible to find your room or any other room without a guide; and yet we were not half as uncomfortably lodged as we had often been -in Scotland and on the Continent. The day after our arrival was Sunday, and the sun rose bright and clear. The day, though not so quiet as in Scotland, was very much like Sunday at home. When the hour of worship arrived, the streets were filled with well-dressed people flocking to the different churches. I went out to seek a Methodist church, and found one, but the service was over, and I proceeded to the nearest Presbyterian church, whose pastor, Dr. Cook, is a man of good reputation. I was disappointed in not hearing him preach, as his pulpit was filled by a novice, who declaimed, but did not preach. In the af- ternoon we attended the opening service of a little brick chapel for the Primitive Methodists. The place was humbly fitted up with wooden benches, generally with- out backs. An honest Lancashire man delivered a plain, earnest sermon, with much feeling; though he talked in the usual low-English style of " hany horders of hangels" and the "'keys of 'ell." In some of the Eng- lish counties it is almost impossible to comprehend the barbarous dialect of the labouring people. This humble. but evidently devout congregation, re- 206 BELFAST. called to my mind the early days of our own form ot Methodism, and made me reflect on a pregnant passage in one of Mr. Wesley's sermons: " If you shall become fat and proud, and forget the poor, and love the world, then God will raise up another poor and humble peo- ple; for he will have a people in the earth." In the evening we took a walk through the north- western part of the town. The streets through which we passed were generally built up with ranges of small two-storv brick houses, with two small doors close to- gether in tront, one leading to the lower (earthen) floor; and the other, by a narrow stairway, to the upper room. Though I had expected to find Belfast a neater town than is common in Ireland, it was better than I had sup- posed, especially in the suburbs. As it has grown up rapidly within twenty or thirty years with the increase of trade, the poorer streets are mostly new, and there are none of those dismal, filthy wynds and old store- houses of dirt and disease that disgust the stranger so much in Edinburgh and Glasgow. But what struck me most was the multitude of hu- man beings that inhabited these streets. It really seem- ed as if' the very ground on which they romped and rolled must have produced the swarms of ruddy chil- dren, some well dressed, sonic half naked, but all fall of life and health, that thronged the way. We could not get on at all upon the sidewalks, and therefore took the middle of the street. All the windows and doors were alive with happy, dirty faces. The tenements seemed like warehouses overflowing with goods-the excess being piled up outside. But I suppose, as it was Sun- day evening, they were generally gathered about the doors of their dwellings to eijoy their day of rest. Belfast is to Ireland what Glasgow is to Scotland. 207 BELrAST. It is famous for its linen goods, and has extensive man- ufactories of other articles. The first cotton factory in Ireland was built here in 1784, at which time the popu- lation of the place did not, perhaps, exceed 10,000; but so rapidly did its trade increase, that in 1821 the popu- lation amounted to 37,000, and is now estimated at about 70,000. But the linen trade soon outstripped the cotton manufacture, and many of the cotton mills are now employed in spinning flax. Though much of the spinning and weaving is done by hand, there are about fifteen steam mills for spinning flax, nnd perhaps as many more driving looms. The superiority of the Belfast manufacture of linen, especially in regard to bleaching, seems to be established beyond risk of com- petition; and the goods find a ready market in all parts of the world. One of our first objects in Ireland was the Giant's Causeway. Taking the Londonderry coach at Belfast, we commenced our journey northward. The countrv near Belfast is highly fertile, and capable of much bet- ter cultivation than it receives; as it was, the people were cutting and gathering an abundant harvest as we passed. The road was good, and the view on every side agreeable. On our right, the Lough of Bellast stretched away to the sea; before us ran a range of hills, all cultivated, terminating on the right in a bold headland projecting far into the bay; and at the base of this promontory lay the ancient town of Carrickfer- gus, with its castle washed by the waves. But, though the landscape was rich and beautiful at a distance, it did not bear close examining. The territory belongs principally to Lord Donegal, and might be made almost a second Eden, if its pro- prietor were such a man as the Duke of Northumber- 208 LO UGH. ROUND TOWVERS. land ; but he is hopelessly embarrassed, principally by gambling debts, and has made some kind of arrange- ment with his son. by which the estate is partially un- der the control of trustees for the benefit of his credit- ors. Although he resides on his estates, because he has not money enough to live anywhere else, he is not thought to add much to the comfort or prosperity of the neighbourhood: the traders of Belfast consider him the worst of all customers; for, though he buys when he can get credit, the prospect of pay is almost hopeless. THIE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. The estate of Lord Templeton, near Templepatrick, appeared to be in better condition: the ditches were clean, the hedges neatly shaven, and the fields smooth and -vell cultivated. Men were at work preparing drains for the fields: a necessary piece of husbandry in these islands, where moisture is in excess. Two miles from Templepatrick lies the old town of Antrim, on the edge of Lough Neagh, the largest sheet of fresh water in the three kingdoms, covering an area of near 100,000 acres. About a mile from the town stands one of those mysterious remains of antiquity, the Round Towers of Ireland. The Antrim tower is in good preservation, and about ninety-five feet in height. I saw a number of others in my journey through the kingdom, but shall set down here all that need be said upon them. The origin and uses of the Round Towers seem to be wrapped in impenetrable mystery; but there is abundance of learned conjecture upon the subject. The facts in regard to them may be very briefly stated. There are about sixty of them remaining in the king- dom, in different degrees of prcservation, but generally 209 nearly sound. Their height varies from twenty-five to one hundred and thirty feet, and their diameter from, twelve to eighteen feet. The only apertures are a door, at some distance from the ground, and four small windows near the top, opening towards the four cardi- nal points. They are very strongly built, evidently at a time of much architectural skill, as the perpendicular is very accurately maintained, and it is almost impos- sible to separate any portion of the walls. In a few in- stances they stand upon high ground, but most frequent- ly in retired situations-sometimes even in deep val- leys, and in the neighbourhood of ecclesiastical edifices. Such are the principal facts in regard to these singu- lar structures. Of the many antiquarian theories in re- gard to them, I shall allude to the most prominent. It has been affirmed that they are purely ecclesiastical buildings-perhaps belfries, fiom the fact of their al- ways standing near churches or abbeys; but this opin- ion is untenable: their ordinary diameter would not admit the swing of a bell; and, besides, the church ed- ifices with which they are generally connected were manifestly built at later periods. It is far more likely that the churches were built near the towers than the towers near the churches. Others suppose them to have been intended for warlike uses-for watch-towers, or something like a chain of telegraph stations round the island. This theory is sufficiently refuted by their ordinary position in low valleys; watch-towers in such situations could serve no purpose. There is no military use which the towers could possibly serve. The opinion of many Irish antiquarians, which coin- cides with the popular tradition, is that the towers were originally erected for the fire-worship, said to have been brought into Ireland at a very early period by 210 ROUND TOWERS. ROUND TOWERS. the Phoenicians. MIoore advocates this theory in his History of Ireland. "' As the worship of fire is known, unquestionably, to have formed a part of the ancient religion of the country, the notion that these towers were originally fire-temples appears the most probable of any that have been yet suggested. The part of the (Persian) temple called the Place of Fire is accessible only to the priest; and, on the supposition that our towers were, in like manner, temples in which the sa- cred flame was kept free from pollution, the singular circumstance of the entrance to them being rendered so difficult by its great height from the ground is at once satisfactorily explained." Mr. Moore farther cor- roborates his view by the fact that, while in no part of Continental Europe has any building of similar con- struction been discovered, two towers have been found in Hindostan, bearing an exact resemblance to those of Ireland. It seems to be well settled that the worship of fire was once practised in Ireland, and the Round Towers certainly may have been connected with it, though the proof adduced in support of the theory is slender indeed. I learned, in conversation with the Rev. Mr. Waugah, ill Dublin, that a new theory has recently been started ill regard to the design of the towers, which has some show of plausibility and some support in recently-dis- covered facts. Mr. W. informed me that excavations had been made in several of them, under the pavement, and that a human skeleton had invariably been found beneath the floor. A very intelligent lady, whose brother-in-law, a clergyman near Belfast, had caused the first of these excavations, informed me that she her- self had seen the skeleton thus exhumed, on the very spot. Should farther explorations establish the uni. 211 212 JAUJNTING CARS. versal presence of skeletons ]n the towers, it will go far to settle the question of their design.' It is not at all improbable that these massive pillar-towers may have been erected as the monuments of early kings or noted chieftains. In this case, like the pyramids, they will have survived the fame of the proud men whose mem- ory they were intended to perpetuatet From Ballymena to Ballymoney the country is flat and uninteresting. Both these towns are engaged in the linen trade quite extensively. At Ballymoney we entered, for the first time, an Irish jaunting car. This curious vehicle, known only in Ireland, has two wheels, on the axle of which two carriage springs are balanced, supporting a wooden frame with seats placed longitu- dinally, facing on opposite sides of the machine. The feet of the passengers rest on a narrow platform outside of the wheel. It is drawn by one horse, sometimes two, tandem. Our sprightly pair carried us merrily on, about thirteen miles in an hour and a half. I find, in the " Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland," the following note, taken from an Irish journal: "We learn that, some time since, Mr. O'Dell, the proprietor of Ardmore, in the county of Waterford, intended to erect floors in the tower there, and explored the interior down to the foundation. With difficulty he removed a vast accumulation of small stones, under which were large masses of rock; and, having reached as low down as within a few inches of the external foundation, it was deemed useless and dangerous to proceed farther. A letter from Sir William Betham was forwarded to Mr. O'Dell, intimating that farther exploration would be desirable, upon which the latter gentleman, at great peril, commenced the task again. He now found another series of large rocks, so closely wedged together that it was difficult to introduce any implement. At length, a perfectly smooth floor of mortar was reached, underneath which he found a bed of mould, and under this, some feet below the outside foundation, was discovered, ly- ing prostrate from east to west, a human skeleton." t Eras are often marked by the prevailing style of the tombs of the great. The pyramids have been mentioned; and I may add the many lofty mounds in Asia Minor, particularly at the ancient Sardis, and on the Plains of Troy. These last struck me as remarkably as the Round Towers of Ireland, and recalled the remark of Mr. Waugh, THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY. A little beyond Ballymoney I noticed one of the la- bourer's cottages worse even than the ordinary hovels of the Irish poor that I had seen. A dirty pool, rich with manure, washed the very door-sills; fine fat ducks were dabbling in it, and children as fat and dirty were looking on. " Why in the world," said I, addressing our cheerful car-man, " do your people place their ma- nure heap in front of the house instead of behind" "Faith," said he, " they like the smell of it, and think it's wholesome. Our people thrive better in the dirt than other clean folks." Verily, he was not far out of the way, if ruddy cheeks and bright eyes are any tokens. We were now approaching the object of our journey, the Giant's Causeway. Two miles from the coast lies the town of Bushmills, the property of Sir Francis M'Naghten, whose son, Colonel M'Naghten, was killed in 1841 in Cabul. The town and neighbourhood have a thriving appearance. Here we were set upon by a host of guides and boatmen, who annoyed us with their offers of service. Among, them was a drunken fellow, who introduced himself as the " Irish poet, Alexander MI'Millan M'Cock," and insisted that we should tell him our names, that he might make a stanza on each. We shook him off at last by the aid of a few pence, and drove on to the coast, where we found a comfortable hotel, Miss Henry's, and discharged our cars. The afternoon was calm, and we seized the opportu- nity to row out to sea, turn a headland to the west, and enter the remarkable cavern, one of the greatest curt- osities of the coast. We had four rowers and a gallant little boat that " rocked lightly o'er the tide." In ten minutes we doubled the perpendicular cape to our left, and a natural arch, ninety-six feet high and about twenty feet wide at the base, opened before us. It was high 213 THE GIANTS (CAUSEWAY. tide, and the heavy swells of the sea were rolling under it into a cavern which seemed of interminable length. The reverberation of the rushing waves was trully sub- lime. As our boat glided under the majestic portal, we could not restrain the wild hurrah ; and the boatmen, catching the enthusiasm, repeated the acclamation with inspiring effect. We all paused, held our breath, and felt the slow but omnipotent swelling and sinking of the sea, as if it were the heaving of the lungs of the world. Gliding out fiorn the dark cavern, we rowed along the coast eastward, just near enough to have a good view of the successive ranges of well-defined basaltic columns, like palisades inserted in the face of the cliffs, which were broken into headlands and coves, and rose from 300 to 400 feet to the table-land, which grad- ually declined towards the country. The ranges of columnar basalt were parallel to each other, and sep- arated by strata of sandstone and coal. Men were working the coal seams high up in the face of the cliffs. The small coves which lie between the headlands are full of basaltic rocks; and their banks rise precipi- touslv in the form of amphitheatres, and were covered with grass, on which flocks of sheep were feeding. The lowest columnar formation is at the water's edge, and partly covered at high tide. It is in three divisions, and the upper ends only of the columns appear, like piles of timber driven into the earth. The surface is not even, some parts being higher than others. The columns are of different shapes: a few are triangular, the majority five or six sided, and occasionally octago- nal. Thev are closely fitted to each other, and articul- lated in joints, like a nest of saucers, the points being from twelve to thirty inches in length. 214 COLERAINE. CHAPTER XVI. IRELAND. Dunluce Castle. - Coleraine. - Lough Foyle.-Londonderry.-Strabane.- Newton-S tewart. - Omagh. - Leinster. - Wretchedness of Peasantry. - Beggars.-Drogheda.-Arrival at Dublin. AFTER leaving Bushmills, we turned aside from the road to Coleraine to see the ruins of Dunluce Castle, of old the residence of the Earls, of Antrim. There is no- thing remarkable about the ruin but its position on an insulated rock, washed by the sea, and divided from the mainland by a chasm, varying from 50 to 100 feet deep, and from 30 to 100 wide. An hour's drive brought us to Coleraine, tile second town in the county Derry, famous for its excellent manufacture of linens. The weaving, however, is not done to any extent by power-looms, but principally by the peasants of the neighbourhood in their cottages, so that the place has not the air of a manufacturing town. It is said to be an improving place, and there is need of it, for there is but one good street, and even in that grass is growving in some places. But it has a more decent appearance than the towns generally in the county Antrim. I found that the decayed condition of many parts of the town was attributed to the nature of the leases on which the property was held ; most of it, as, indeed, a great part of the county, being held under a grant made bv the crown, in the early part of the seventeenth centu rv, to a company of London merchants. All over Great Britain and Ireland may be seen the miserable results of the oppressive tenures under which property is held from titled families and chartered companies. There can 215 LONDONDERRY. be no real, permanent prosperity for the poorer classes, until, in some way or other, a distribution of landed property is made. May the legislators of England learn wisdom from the bitter experience of their French neigh- bours, and not put off this great work until the people take it into their own hands. The route from Coleraine to Londonderry has no- thing of special interest. The country improves be- yond Newton-Limovaddy-the bog-land disappears; and as we passed, the reapers were gathering an abun- dant harvest. Lough Foyle affords some pretty views. A ridge of highland runs directly towards it, increasing in height until it terminates in a precipitous headland, looking down upon the land-locked lake. They call it a mountain; but there is nothing in Ireland to which a Switzer or an Alleghanian would give the name. Londonderry is finely situated on the Foyle, which is navigable, at high tide, for vessels of 1000 tons. There is a beautiful bridge over the river, 1000 feet long, built by Mr. L. Cox, of Boston, Mass., who has erected sev- eral other bridges of the kind in Ireland. The city is built on a hill falling off on the east and north towards the river, which makes a bold sweep around the town. The surrounding country is beautifully diversified with hill and valley, highly cultivated, and adorned with many handsome country-seats. The old gray walls still surround the town proper, which is compactly built, yet not crowded within them, and even the suburbs are neatly built. There is none of the appearance of wretchedness, so common in Irish towns, to be seen at Londonderry. It has the air of a prosperous place, and everybody seemed to be employed and contented. Though there are no manufactures of importance in Londonderry, it is a place of considerable trade. It is the point of departure for most of the emigrants from 2016 the north of Ireland to America. The principal exports are grain, butter, and provisions generally. The amount of exports is over a million sterling per annum, and the trade is said to be increasing. Londonderry is a bish- op's see-and a wealthy one, too-now held by one of the English Ponsonby family. But a small part of the population are Roman Catholics. Leaving Londonderry, we kept along the Foyle for several miles. The country was low, but well cultiva- ted, and the people appeared healthy and comfortable. The town of Strabane, in the county Tyrone, is an ap- parently flourishing place, though not remarkably neat. It carries on a brisk linen trade. There are two Meth- odist churches in the place. The whole town belongs to the estate of the Marquis of Abercorn. Passing through the vast domain of that nobleman, we came to the little town of Newton-Stewart, pleasantly situated on the Strule. Some seven miles-farther on lies Omagh, the county town of Tyrone, whose principal street runs down the side of a steep and inconvenient hill. As far as this place the road was fine and much travelled. We met many carts laden with butter and provisions, on their way to Derry. Beyond Omagh the road was not so good, nor did the country present the same in- lications of prosperity. Stopping all night at Castle Blaney, in the county Monaghan, we took seats on the outside of the Dublin coach at nine o'clock in the morning. An intelligent physician sat by my side, and talked freely and sensibly about the condition of Ireland. I found his opinions in regard to the causes of the wretchedness of the coun- try to be like those of most men in the middle ranks of life in Ireland, ascribing it to the unequal division of property, to absenteeism, to the peculiar improvidence VOL. II.-T 217 TYRONE. of the Irish character, and to the prevalence of the Ro- man Catholic religion. I shall allude to this point again in another place. I did not need to be told when we passed out of the province of Ulster into Leinster. Miserable mud cab- ins, more wretched than I could have conceived, soon convinced me that the accounts which I had often read of the condition of the Irish peasantry, and which I had supposed to be generally exaggerated, did not tell half the truth. No description could. Had I left Ireland after visiting Ulster alone, I should have had no concep tion of the depth of poverty and wretchedness in which this noble population is sunk. The number of beggars increased with every mile of our advance southward. At Drogheda they sur- rounded us in swarms. Their quick wit and ready re- plies were characteristic. They soon discovered that we were strangers in Ireland. Most of the passengers paid little attention to their clamorous entreaties, and they directed all their attacks towards us. A few pen- nies brought a shower of blessings upon our heads. The custom which I have mentioned as prevalent in England with hotel-keepers and coach-proprietors, of letting their servants loose upon travellers, instead of paying their wages themselves, is found also in Ireland. The sum thus extorted amounts, I think, to full twen- ty-five per cent. of the fare at the hotels and upon the roads ; at Londonderry, for instance, our bill was nine shillings, and fees to servants four shillings. From Lon- donderry to Dublin, the gratuities to coachmen, guards, c., amounted to one fourth of the passage money. We reached Dublin at seven o'clock in the evening. The northern approach is the worst-through lanes of dirty hovels and thatched cabins-but when you get into the city, it is like passing from darkness into light. 218 VEINSTER. DUBLIN. CHAPTER XVII. IRELAND. Dublin.-View from Carlisle Bridge.-Public Buildings.-Trinity College.- Phoenix Park.-Beggars. -Temperance Reform. -Sunday in Dublin.- Route to Limerick.-Peasantry.-Hovels.-The Pig.-Round Tower.- Rock of Dunamase.-Limerick.-The New Town.-X Walk through the Old Town.-Chapel.-Filth and Poverty.-The River Shannon. DUBLIN is indeed a beautiful city. Its squares. its parks, some of its streets and public buildings, are unri- valled in the British dominions. It lies upon both sides of the little River Liffev, about a mile from its mouth, in the beautiful Bay of Dublin; and eight bridges over the stream add not a little to the beauty of the town. On the south and west the environs are delightful; a fine range of hills, extending southeastwardly to the coast, with adjacent lowlands, studded with villas, makes a pretty view from any elevated point in the city. Dub- lin is much better built than London, in proportion to the size of the two cities: there are fewer wretched streets and squalid houses in it; and more streets in which taste and architectural skill are exhibited. Hardly in any city is there a finer view than that from Carlisle bridge, the lowest on' the Liffey. To the north, Sackville-street, two hundred feet wide, exposes its lofty ranges of buildings, the column of Nelson, and the noble Ionic portico of the postoffice. Westmore- land-street opens on the south, flanked by the chaste edifice occupied by the Bank of Ireland; farther south appears the granite front of Trinity College, with its Corinihian portico; westward you look up the Liffe-, 219 adorned with bridges, and enclosed on each side by well-built granite walls, and bordered by interminable ranges of building; while to the east, the majestic front of the custom-house overlooks the stream, which ex- pands towards the estuary, where a forest of masts ap- pears in the distance. Many of the public edifices of Dublin deserve minute description, but I must pass them by. Trinity College is one of the most wealthy institutions of learning in Eu- rope, and has buildings and accommodations superior to any except those of Oxford and Cambridge. The buildings consist of three separate quadrangles of gran- ite, each enclosing a green. East of the college is a park of about twenty acres, for the recreation of the stu- dents. There are at present sixteen hundred students on the books, but many of them are nonresidents. The library, of one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, is arranged in a noble room two hundred and twenty feet long, and over forty broad. Dublin is celebrated for its public squares, among which are St. Stephen's Green, Merion Square, Mount- joy Square, c., all neatly laid out, and adding greatly to the beauty and healthfulness of the place. But the pride of the city is Phcenix Park, and well it may be. Seventeen hundred acres of ground, enclosed with a stone wall, affords such a pleasure-ground as no other city in Europe can boast. Smooth roads traverse it in every direction; old forest trees are there, and newly- planted ones are springing up; ravines, in their native wildness, entangled with furze and hawthorn, and green plots, with walks and blooming flowers, make it a love- ly scene indoed. Herds of beautiful cattle and fine deer roam in it at pleasure. The best of it is that it is open to all comers, who may ride, drive, or walk where 220 PHINIX PARK. they please. In the midst of the park are the mnanls fns of the lord-lieutenant and of the chief secretary; also, an institution for the education of sons of soldiers, anid many neat little lodges for the porters and keepers. A part of it is also appropriated for a zoological garden. Dublin, then, is a beautiful city ; but there is a s (l drawback. While you pass alone Sackville-street, or St. Stephen's Green, admiring the aristocratic mansions before you, upon the sidewalk, or upon the verv stone steps of some splendid building, you see beggars in rags and filth, in comparison to which the wretched- ness of other lands is comfort. Miserable wYomen, car- rying still more miserable children, arrest you at every turn with their plaintive lamentations or their clamor- ous demands. Men of strong frames, but gaunt with hunger, beg, charity of you for the love of God. Com- ing from a land where begging is almost unknown, I could hardly enjoy the fine sights of Dublin, amid the squalid wretchedness of the mendicants that thronged its showy streets. The inhabitants of the city are used to it; and seldom did I see even the most importunate beggar aided by charity from a native hand. God help the wretched poor of Ireland: man, it seems, can or will do little for them. In the suburbs of Dublin you may notice over the door of many a little hovel, "A. B., licensed to retail spirits, ale, and beer." I saw the same kind of notice in similar districts of every Irish town I visited. Even at Londonderry its prevalence was remarkable. I asked an intelligent citizen of the place whether Father Matthew had been there. " No, sir, he never enters a diocess without the consent of the bishop, nor a parish without that of the priest: the priests of Londonderry, under the influence, it is supposed, of some rich distil- T 2 21 B EGGARS. lers, refused their consent." I have been happy to see, elsewhere, the Catholic priests cordially co-operating with Father Matthew in his benevolent enterprise. I spent a Sunday in Dublin, and a delightful Sunday it was. The Abbey-street Wesleyan Chapel presented as fine a congregation, as well dressed and intelligent in appearance, as I had seen in Europe. The Methodist Church has about one thousand five hundred members in the city, with nine church edifices, counting the beau- tiful one now erecting on St. Stephen's Green. I found an Irish welcome among them; and that is everything that need be said to characterize a generous hospitality. I was much indebted to Rev. Mr. Waugh for his kind- ness during our stay in Dublin. Our route from Dublin to Limerick took us through the counties of Kildare, Queen's, and Tipperary, con- taining some of the most wretched and unsettled dis- tricts in the kingdom. The towns were of the same description, only much more filthy, and with a popula- tion much more ragged and miserable than those we had seen north of Dublin. There are generally a few good houses in the centre of the town; but the cross streets and lanes are lined with wretched, thatched hovels, without floors, with but one window, and generally with a dungheap before the door. Out of the large towns I do not recollect having seen, on the roads or about the peasants' huts, any persons, male or female, whose clothes seemed to have been made for them; all were old, patched, and ragged, apparently the refuse of Monmouth-street. The women were generally bare- footed and barelegged; and many of the children had hardly even rags to cover their nakedness. Yet, amid all their destitution and all their filth, I never saw a more ruddy, healthful, and apparently cheerful popula- 222 PEASANTRY1. tion. The interior of the Irish peasant's cabin is even worse than I had imagined. Furniture, properly so called, they have none: an old chair, a broken table, and a few pieces of crockery, with straw for the "chil- der's beds," make a very respectable establishment. In one cabin I saw " the pig"-weighing, perhaps, two hundred pounds-lying in the middle of the floor, and affording a comfortable footstool to an old man who sat by in a rickety chair. By-the-way, I have corrected my foolish notions about pigs in peasants' cabins. I used to think it a mark of poverty and degradation to see his swinish majesty stretched upon the same earth floor with the women and children; but I have learned that his presence is a sign of superior comfort and prosperity. The pig eats what the children cannot; and, when fatten- ed, is not killed to make dainty food for the family, but sold to pay the " rint." Pity is it, indeed, of the poor labourer who has no pig, and has to feed his family and pay his rent out of his pittance of tenpence a day for wages. At Kildare we saw another of the ancient Round Towers, in a high state of preservation. It stands, as many of these mysterious buildings do, near the ruins of an old church, and being one hundred and thirty feet high, is a prominent object for many miles round. In passing from Monastereven to Marvborough, in Queen's county, we passed the Rock of Dunamase, crowned with the ruins of an old castle of Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, which was demolished in the time of Cromwell. The most flourishing town on the road from Dublin to Limerick is Nenagh, in the county of Tipperary; there is a military barrack, and the place seems to enjoy a good deal of trade. Yet, with the exception of the business streets in the centre of the town, it is nothing but a collection of filthy hovels. N.EN AG1. 223 We reached Limerick at ten o'clock at night, and I succeeded in obtaining a sofa bed at Truce's Hotel. The house was full; but, as it was well kept, we had no cause of complaint. Limerick lies at the head of the estuary of the Shan- non, about sixty miles from the Atlantic. It is divided into two parts, the Old and New Town, by a branch of the Shannon. The contrast between the filth and wretch- edness of the two divisions is even stronger than at Edinburgh. The New Town has grown up within the last sixty years, and contains all the places of business and the residences of the wealthy inhabitants. The principal street is wide and well built; there are many dwellings of considerable pretensions, and the shops are very well furnished. The trade of Limerick is flour- ishing, the annual exports being estimated at about a million sterling. I traversed the whole of the Old Town. At six o'clock in the morning, crossing the Shannon by the lower bridge, I found myself in a miserable suburb on the opposite side, worse than the worst in Dublin. An humble Catholic chapel stood in the midst of a collec- tion of mud hovels, and the poor people were throng- ing into it for morning prayers. I went in and saw them kneeling on the rude stone pavement, some half naked, and others covered only with rags. Poor wretch- es, how I pitied them. It was consoling to see that they could at least look for a better world, if they could have no joy in this. They derive comfort from the very cause of much of their ignorance and wretchedness- the Roman Catholic religion. I remained until the priest, whose tattered robes were in keeping with the appearance of his flock, had finished the service, and the miserable worshippers departed. Passing on to the 224 LIMERICK. upper bridge, we crossed it into the Old Town. I had often thought that Radicals and Repealers exaggerated their statements of Irish distress, and that the pictures of tourists were always too deeply shaded, but after what I saw that day I shall hardly dare to disbelieve anything on the subject. The whole truth cannot be told; and could the disgusting recital be made, no man would believe, that had not seen the like with his own eyes. I walked up and down those dismal lanes until I was sick at stomach and at heart; I stepped to the doors of the wretched huts, and talked with the still more wretched inmates; and what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, I will not venture to narrate. In whole streets there was not a hut with any other than an earthen floor; few of them had any door but the one opening upon the narrow street; and win- dows and glass are luxuries unknown. In most of the houses at which I stopped there was neither bed nor table; the furniture generally consisted of a broken chair or two and a rude box or barrel. Even straw was a rarity. Yards or gardens there were none; all the filth of these thronged dwellings was thrown into the little streets, of some twelve to twenty feet wide. Let it be recollected that all these hovels, and there are hundreds and hundreds of them, are closely packed with men, women, and children, and the reader may have some faint idea of the condition of the streets in the Old Town of Limerick. The Shannon is the finest river in the British Isles. Its length, from its source in Lough Allan to the Atlan- tic, is about 240 miles; and for great part of this dis- tance it is deep enough to admit of navigation by small steamers, with a little artificial assistance by short ca- nals. The Irish people glory in the Shannon; and to 225 DISTRESS. 2T2 HE SUANNON. people who know nothing more of rivers than can he learned by actual observation in the United Kingdonm. it is indeed a mighty stream. To those, however, who are familiar with the majestic rivers of our Western World, it is but a small affair. I believe if all the run- ning waters in Great Britain and Ireland were poured at once into the Mississippi, in the time of the spring floods, fifty miles above New-Orleans, the good people of that city would not know that anything unusual had happened. I made a remark like this in the presence of a company of intelligent English gentlemen, and it was amusing to see the incredulous expression which every face around the dinner-table assumed. It was set down, of course, as a fair specimen of Yankee exagger- ation. Englishmen are unwilling to believe anything of any country, that goes much beyond the standard of things around them at home. In general, too, they are strangely ignorant of the geography, and statistics, and actual condition of other countries. In regard to Amer- ica this ignorance is intense, even in classes of society where better things are naturally expected. Mrs. Trol- lope is quite an oracle among them on American affairs. 226 KILLARN EY. CHAPTER XVIII. KILLARNEY. Killarney.-Victoria Hotel.-No Bedroom.-The Lakes.-Muckruss Abbey. -A Resting-place.-Peasant Girl.-The Upper Lake.-The Channel.- The Eagle's Nest.-Echoes.-Weir's Bridge.-Turk Lake.-The Lower Lake.-Ross Island.-Innisfallen island.-Lord Kenmare.-Evils of Ire- land. FROM Limerick we went immediately to Killarnev. The road lay, for the first thirty miles, through a level country, rich. but generally ill cultivated. There were fine seats, dirty villages, old abbeys, Roman Catholic churches, and miserable peasants. Below Newcastle we travelled for some miles amid vast but gentle swells of bog land covered with heather. Castle Island, in the county Kerry, a broken-down village, contains the ruins of an old castle built in the thirteenth century. The country from Castle Island to Killarney is more varied and picturesque than above. I had the good for- tune to have the company of an intelligent lady from Belfast, who had much acquaintance with Ireland, and had very correct views, as I thought, of its present con- dition. Our talk at last turned on America, of which I found she had no other notions than she had learned from Mrs. Trollope. Arriving at Killarney, which is a pretty good town, as towns go in Ireland, of some 8000 inhabitants, we at once took a jaunting-car down to the Lower Lake, a few miles distant, and took up our abode at the Victoria Hotel, beautifully situated on a green that slopes down to the edge of the water. But it was one thing to get into the house and quite another to get beds, as every room was occupied. After some bustle 227 KILLARNEY. and many kind words, the landiady discovered that the sitting-room of a party visiting the lakes could be stolen for us, after they had retired for the night; and cots were soon arranged for us in their neat little parlour. We slept soundly, but were called rather early in the morning to make way for the breakfast-table of the rightful occupants. I doubt whether they knew, when they sat down to their dainty morning's repast, that not an hour before their breakfast-room had been occupied as a bedchamber. But agreeables and disagreeables are brought into close proximity in Ireland. The cen- tre of a showy town, the nobleman's mansion, or the seat of a rapacious middleman, are often not five min- utes' walk from the most revolting scenes of human wretchedness. The lakes of Killarney lie in a semicircle around the base of a range of mountains, the highest in Ireland, called Maegillicuddy's Reeks, whose moss-covered sides and towering peaks add greatly to the charms of this beautiful spot. The lakes are three in number: the Lower Lake, Turk Lake, and Upper Lake. The two for- mer are properly one sheet of water, being on the same level, but nearly separated from each other by a prom- ontory that juts out from Muckruss. The two latter, three miles apart, are connected by a long, winding channel. Our hotel lay upon the northern shore of the Lower Lake; but as the best views are to be ob- tained by taking boat at the upper or southern extrem- ity, we made our arrangements for a car to convey us to Dina's Island, at the end of Turk Lake, engaging a boat and rowers to meet us there. After an early breakfast we set off, and enjoyed what is rather rare at Killarney, a fine day, with a slightly hazy sky; the very atmosphere for the enjoymenlt of lake scenery. IMUCKRE SS ABBEY. Before arriving at Dina's Island, we turned in from the road to see the ruins of Muckruss Abbey, which lie upon Mr. Herbert's grounds, near the edge of the Upper Lake. Entering the grounds through a neat iron gate, we found a clean gravel road leading to within a hun- dred yards of the ruins, which are surrounded by fine old trees, with their roots twisted about the moss-grown rocks. A crumbling square tower still rises above the old walls, some of which remain in pretty good preser- vation. A thick mantle of ivy throws a richness and softness over the whole ruin ; a perfectly-preserved Gothic window in the northern wall was overhung with its deep-green masses. One of the chapels is filled with vaults raised a few feet above the ground, covered with a tangled growth of flowers and ivy. I had seen the costly tombs of Thre la Chaise; I had stood among the monuments of the dead in old cathedrals and gorgeous Pantheons; but never be- fore had I seen a spot which inspired me with a wish that my last resting-place might be there. Around me lay the graves of Irish chieftains in the chapel where, centuries before, the prayers of holy men had been offered night and morning; and now its shat- tered walls were covered with flowers, where bees gathered sweetness, and seemed, with their soft hum that filled the quiet air, to prolong the requiem for the departed. In one of the courts was one of the finest yew-trees I had ever seen. Its old arms stretched over the walls, and the upper branches formed a green dome for the entire court. The ruins, especially of ecclesiastical edifices, in Ire- land, lie generally amid scenes of great natural beauty. The old unworldly fathers certainly had an open eye for the loveliness of the earth. VOL. 1I.-U 229 THE UPPER LAKE. We left the abbey, and returned to the road through Mr. Herbert's beautiful grounds. Just as we entered the car, a little girl of twelve or thirteen ran up to us with pears to sell; and though the car moved on rapid- ly, she kept up with us with ease, urging us to pur- chase. Unfortunately, I had no small money, and I told her so; when she replied, in a breath, "May your hon- our's word niver be doubted." We stopped, took her fruit, and promised to leave the money with the driver; and her ready acquiescence in the arrangement showed that she was willing to trust our " honour's word." Arriving at Dina's Island, we found our boat ready, em- barked, passed through the channel, and in an hour were in the Upper Lake. Closely hemmed in by the mountains-clothed nearly to their summits with rich purple heather-and thickly studded with islands, some of them naked rocks, and others covered with rich flowering shrubs, noble ash-trees, and, more striking than all, with the beautiful arbutus, this little lake com- bines a variety of lovely scenes that cannot be surpass- ed. Throughout all the lakes, nothing struck me more than the wonderful richness of the foliage and the bloom of the wild flowers. The arbutus, elsewhere but a shrub, here often becomes a large tree, and, with its many-coloured leaves and tempting berries, adds great- ly to the beauty of the little islands on which it flour- ishes so luxuriantly. A number of neat cottages built by the proprietors around the banks of the lake add to the picturesque effect. The narrow channel between the Upper and Turk Lakes affords a pleasing variety of river scenery. The Eagle's Nest, however, is the great point of attraction: it is a rugged mountain, some twelve hundred feet high, in whose craggy peaks the golden eagle has his eyry. 230 TIHE LOWER LAKE. One of the finest echoes for which Killarney is so cele- brated is heard at this point. We had two buglemen with us, and their sonorous notes awoke a thousand echoes from the winding hills, that prolonged the sounds with magical effect. A cannon was fired upon shore, and its continued reverberations were like bursts of thunder among the mountains. Passing, down the chan- nel, wve approached Weir's Bridge, a picturesque old structure, thrown across the stream near its mouth in Turk Lake. The channel runs with great rapidity; and, as there is but one arch affording a passage for boats, it sweeps wildly through this narrow way, and some skill is required to effect the shoot without acci- dent. One of our company, who had the helm, was hardly quick enough in his movements, and the boat was hurled with such violence against a projecting rock as to throw one of the boatmen off his balance, and almost to give us all a plunge into the rapid stream. At last we shot through, and soon emerged into the open lake below. Turk Lake is less striking than the Upper Lake, but yet abounds in beauty. But the charms of the Lower Lake eclipsed both of the others. What a sweet spot is Glena, with Lady Kenmare's pretty cottage, em- bowered with shrubs and flowers, by the water side, and the high peak of the mountain behind it! But the chief attractions of the lake are the island of Innisfallen and Ross Island. The approach to the latter by water affords a more exquisite scene than I remember on any of the lakes of Switzerland; but Innisfallen is a perfect paradise. Its noble ash and yew trees. its thickets of arbutus, its wilderness of flowers, its sunny lawns and shaded dells, and the crumbling ruins of its old abbey, make up a scene of varied loveliness, within a compass 231 of thirty acres, that cannot be rivalled, I believe, in the world. I could hardly tear myself away from the spot, and adopted heartily the words of Moore: "Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well, Mtay calm and sunshine long be thine; How fair thou art let others tell, While but to feel how fair is mine. Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well, And long may light around thee smile, As soft as on that evening fell When first I saw thy fairy isle." I had but one day to spend at Killarney, and could have enjoyed weeks; but our plans could not be alter- ed, and we reluctantly bade adieu to the lakes and re- turned to our hotel. On the east of the lakes are the domains of Mr. Her- bert and of Lord Kenmare. To the latter the town of Killarney belongs; and I was disposed to form a bad opinion of him from the pauperism and wretchedness that I saw there, until I learned that the land is held by others under him, under long leases. His domains gen- erally seem to be improving; and, though many of the poor in the neighbourhood speak ill of him, I was told that he was making judicious exertions for the benefit of his people. This, of course, can be only said of him. in comparison with others. A man that derives pound;40,000 a year from an estate, by means of the toil of his fel- lows, is bound to do a great deal for their comfort. It was a repulsive feature in all the fine domains about Killarney that they were encompassed by high walls, their paradisiacal beauty being thus kept out of sight of the wretched peasantry around. The lake shore cannot be seen except by permission to pass through the grounds of some of the rich proprietors. The boat that carried us over the lakes brings revenue to Lord 232 I-NItrALLEN. EVILS OF IRELAND. 233 Kenmare. A noble crew we had: fine, full-chested fellows, with bright eyes and ready tongues; and my heart bled for them, toiling so willingly for their pit- tance of tenpence a day. Yet they are full of the sense of wrong: God forbid that it should ever be ground out of them I "We lead a dog's life here, so we do; and it'll never be better," said one of them, sadly, as, with his fellows, he was rowing us over their own beautiful lake. He spoke truth. At all events, it will never be better until the soil of Ireland shall be restored to Irishmen. U 2 STAGE-COACH CHAPTER XIX. CORK. Stage-coach-Want of Courtesy among Travellers.-Conversation.-Opin- .ons of America.-Mrs. Trollope.-The Lee.-Cork.-Appearance of the City-Father Mathew.-Taking the Pledge.-The Temperance Reform in Ireland.-Adhesion of the Catholics.-Conversation.-Effects of the Reform.-Question as to its Permanernce.-Dependent on their Political Regeneration. LEAVING Killarney for Cork in the mail-coach, I took my usual favourite seat aloft. Beside me was a well-dressed, blooming young lady-a rare companion- ship on the outside of a coach; but she had two chil- dren with her, and room could not be made for them within. A little attention on the part of my friend C. and myself was necessary to place them comfortably upon the seat, and she expressed her thanks very warm- ly for a civility so unusual. I say unusual, for the courtesy to ladies which is universal at home, among all classes of society, is unknown on the public roads of Great Britain. No man, of any condition, in America would retain an inside seat in a coach if any woman, even the poorest, were exposed to the weather without; but I have seen passengers in English coaches secure their own comfort, in more ways than one, at the ex- pense of all their fellow-travellers, ladies not excepted. So far as the manifestations of little courtesy and kind- nesses go, there can be no comparison between the pas- sengers in public conveyances in the two countries. I found my lady companion very agreeable and in- telligent. She was well acquainted with Ireland, and 234 OPINIONS OF AMERICA. felt the wrongs and wretchedness of her country. I found, too, that she was familiar with the best writers of our own country, at least those of the lighter class. She appreciated, justly, the merits of Irving, Cooper, and Willis, but talked with some severity of the bad taste and bad manners of the latter, in giving details of private conversations and accounts of private society which lie had enjoyed in England. This kind of re- proof my pleasant countryman has often received. I found the lady, like almost all others who had read of America at all, had made Mrs. Trollope's Domestic Manners of the Americans her text-book; and she seemed surprised when I told her it was freely circula- ted in America, and as freely laughed at. After telling her what we thought of Mrs. T., I also told her a little of what we knew; and my revelations in regard to Mrs. T.'s speculations in trade at Cincinnati, her failure in business, and the kindness of the people in bestowing charity upon her, astonished her, as well they might, with the vulgar woman's base ingratitude. At home, we are so much accustomed to the ingratitude and mendacity of English tourists, at least those of the low- er order, that we can be surprised at no manifestations of it. Of course, the representations of these writers are generally believed In England; but I found that nothing but clear, honest accounts were necessary to set the people right. The approach to Cork showed us nothing remarkable except a relic of barbarity on the banks of the Lee, the treadmill in active operation. A prettier and more natural sight was a company of well-formed lads ba- thing in the clear waters of the little river; but, what would seem odd enough in any other country, a couple of sprightly lassies of thirteen or fourteen were enjoy- 235 ing the same luxury not a hundred yards off, while a bevy of their playmates, full of glee, kept watch for them on the grassy bank. We found no miserable sub- urbs in entering the city, and were delighted with the first glance at this well-built, thriving town. Cork is a very ancient place, dating its origin as far back as the ninth century; but there are few or no re- mains of ancient architecture. Its present appearance is that of a busy commercial town; the streets are wide and clean in the centre of the town; the houses more generally respectable than is common in a place of the size; and there is no painful contrast of splendour and squalor, as in Dublin. Not that there is not poverty and misery enough, but it is certainly less obvious than in any town I saw in the south of Ireland. There are no public buildings worth mentioning. The situation of the town is highly picturesque; and the heights that surround it, especially on the left bank of the river, pre- sent a lovely appearance, the deep hues of the woods blending with the light green of the lawns surrounding the pretty villas that stud the range of hills for the dis- tance of.a mile and a half. It is equal, if not superior, to the heights around Havre. But among all the attractions at Cork, the Rev. The- obald Mathew, the apostle of temperance in Ireland, was to me the most attractive; and I had the good for- tune to find him at his own house, just returned from Limerick. In reply to a letter which I sent him, he sent word that he would be pleased to see me at any hour. I waited on him at half past six o'clock. Upon entering the narrow hall of his plain, but commodious house, I found the room on the ground floor full of very humble people, standing around a secretary, who was making a most vehement speech to them on the benefits of tem- 236 CORK. VATHER MATHEW. perance. He was showing how it increased the power of physical endurance, and illustrated it by a boat-race which had just taken place between three crews: one of whiskey drinkers, one of ale or beer drinkers, and one of cold-water drinkers. As he advanced in his animated declamation, he raised his huge fist aloft, saying, " The teetotallers came out first, the ale drinkers next, and the nasty, dirty, rum-and-whiskey drinkers last," which dec- laration he confirmed by bringing down his lion's paw with tremendous weight upon the huge record book containing the four millions of names of those who have taken the pledge from Father Mathew. It really was a novel and interesting scene. I soon learned that the secretary was entertaining the crowd until Father Mathew could come down from his tea and administer the pledge to them. In a few min- utes he came down, and having spoken to us with much kindness, he turned to the motley group, and asked if they wished to take the pledge. They- came forward en masse and kneeled down before him. lie said, " It is all for your good; many now are decent, well clad, and comfortable, who, before they took the pledge, were naked, hungry, and wretched; say after me, 'I promise, by Divine assistance, to abstain from all intoxicating liquors, and, by my example and advice, to endeavour to prevail on others to do the same."' He then added, "M May God give you grace to keep your promise; may God grant you all temporal and spiritual blessings." Then putting his hand on the head of each, he said, "God bless you." They rose from their knees, and he directed their names to be inscribed in the great book. We witnessed the same scene next morning at ten o'clock in the same room. It is always full when he is in town, and a secretary is in waiting to record the 237 THE PLEDGE. names. The general impression is, that it is more sacred and binding to take the pledge from Father Ma- thew than from any other. Hence but few take it of others, and always take it again of Father Mathew, whenever he comes within from ten to thirty miles of them. There were persons present when we were in the room who had come thirty miles to take the pledge. He informed us that he had seen thirty thousand people kneeling before him at once in the open fields. and their repeating the pledge was like little thunder-like the sound of many waters. The pledge is understood to be perpetual, and the party may not dissolve the obli- gation at pleasure. He may disregard and violate it, as some do, but he cannot, as we express it withdraw. There is evidently a religious obligation attached to the pledge, founded, to some extent, in the authority and sanctity of the party administering it, as well as the consent of the party taking it. This impression on the mind of the taker of the pledge is strengthened by the fact, that Father Mathew has no pastoral charge, and is not subject to any bishop or ecclesiastical authority in Ireland; but is, by special letter from the pope, com- missary apostolic for Ireland, that he may prosecute his great work without let or hinderance from any church dignitary. Thus the sanction of the pope is indirectly obtained to the cause of temperance in Ireland. I learned these facts at the table of Father Mathew from his brother, who sat next me, and from himself also. Yet, so judi- cious is this truly benevolent man, that he will not enter the diocess of any Catholic bishop without his consent. I inquired of him why he was thus forbearing, when the people clamoured for his presence; and his answer was, that the success of the cause depended very much upon 238 FATHER MATHIEW. the countenance of the clergy, and he was anxious to avoid producing discord in the Church. Upon particu- lar inquiry, I learned from him that the Catholic clergy were not generally favourable to the movement, as it seemed to imply the inefficiency of their influence and preaching, to suppose that a pledge was farther neces- sary to bind their flocks to temperate living; and, far- ther, the general adoption of the pledge by the people would lead them to condemn the practices of their priests. The Protestant clergy take no active part in the enterprise, but they are not opposed to it, as the movement is almost exclusively confined to Catholics, in the pledge form. Yet some of the dignitaries of the Established Church have been requested to give their sanction; and Archbishop Whately, of Dublin, decli- ned, on the ground that the Gospel is sufficient, without a pledge, to restrain men from intemperance. I pre- sume it might be, if his lordship and all others would preach it as did the Master and his apostles, and de- nounce, in such terms as are suitable, all intemperance and vice. But until they do this, they ought not to impede the good others would do. I had as yet seen Father Mathew only by candle- light, when Mr. C. and myself took a cup of coffee with him, and, as he said, a company of tee-totaliers-ladies and gentlemen. After the party broke up, he walked with us to our hotel, taking each of us by the arm, and invited all of us to come and take breakfast with him next morning at nine o'clock. Of course we accepted the invitation, and, as it was Friday, we had a meatless breakfast; but everything else, eggs, butter, honey. toast, bread, hot cakes, tea, coffee, chocolate. and no- body to interrupt our conversation. I had a good op- portunity of observing the person of this remarkable 239 FATHER MATRIIW4 man. He is little above the ordinary size, well built, square, and firm; aquiline nose; fresh colour, and a countenance expressive of benevolence and decision; very agreeable and even bland in his manners, with a most winning kindness of address. There is nothing of the Franciscan monk in his appearance: without be- ing corpulent, he is in full health and flesh, and very neatly dressed. He would have been distinguished in some other way, if not in the most excellent of all ways, in benefiting the miserable population of his country by suppressing intemperance. He showed us many little ballads, addresses, song., c., which had been published by various persons and societies, and gave us all a copy of each. He also pre- sented each of us with a silver medal, about the size of a dollar, beautifully executed: on one side a company kneeling around him, taking the pledge, while he holds out his right hand towards them, and says, " May God bless you, and grant you strength and grace to keep your promise." On-the reverse, a cross, with rays of light, under which are, " He reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come" (Acts, chap. xxiv., verse 25), surrounded with a wreath, containing the in- scription, " The Apostle of Temperance"-referring to Father Mathew himself. I prize it highly, and shall bequeath it as a legacy to my children. There are inferior medals struck, which are sold for a shilling each, and these produce money enough to pay all his expenses, and probably to defray the expense of building a very magnificent marble church, now in course of erection in Cork. He took us to see it; he calls it his church. I have said the Protestant clergy do not generally take any part in his temperance movements. But there A24 0 TEMPERANCE IN IRELAND. are exceptions. He showed us a letter from a young Scotch clergyman, who had kneeled to him and taken the pledge when he was in Glasgow, some weeks before, where he had administered it to thirty thousand in two days. From what we saw when we were there after- ward, thirty thousand more ought to take it. The cler- gyman's letter was written in a truly catholic spirit. Just before we parted, Father Mathew remarked, "I should like to administer the pledge to you all." But our American feelings of voluntary and personal obli- gation had the mastery, and we made no reply. Yet I am satisfied the pledge, in the form of religious obliga- tion and priestly sanction, is necessary to Ireland, per- haps to Catholics everywhere. No man, who does not choose to be blind, can pass through Ireland without seeing the good effects of tem- perance among the great mass of the people. I saw only a few persons drunk, or even disguised. The fall- ing off in the excise duty shows a reduction in the con- sumption of whiskey from eleven to six millions of gal- lons in 1841; a circumstance noticed by the Lord-chan- cellor of England, while he said the loss of the revenue was a matter of moral congratulation. So said the cel- ebrated Maria Edgeworth, whose property in Edge- worthtown had ceased to yield its accustomed rents, owing to the progress of temperance; for many of the houses had been rented for grog-shops. I have this from Father Mathew himself The gentry of Ireland are not opposed to the reform, though they do not assist it; they see its benefits to the poor people, and hence are glad of it. But they them- selves still hold on to their whiskey punch and sherry wvine. It is something not to oppose. The most vio- lent opposition comes from the distillers, who often send VOL. II.-X 241 WILL IT LAST the neighbouring priests a cask or so, and who gener- ally have all the grog-houses under their control, by paying the rent, and putting a tenant in to sell their fire- waters. Mr. Mathew mentioned a single distilling es- tablishment in Cork which paid pound;6000 per annum, or nearly 30,000 rents for the thousands of wretched grog-shops through the country where their liquors were retailed. But the cause is onward, and it is hoped will triumph. -No one, I believe, attaches any sinister motive to Father Mathew. The beneficial results of the Temperance reform in Ireland are not only seen in the general absence of in- toxication among the people, but also confirmed by the great falling off in the revenues from the spirit duty. Father Mathew's efforts commenced in the spring of 1838. In 1839 the spirit duty amounted to over pound;1,400,000; in 1840, to only a little over 1,000,000: a reduction of nearly a third in two years. The spirit duty paid in Scotland, for three millions of inhabitants, was, in 1840, over a million and a half sterling; one half more than that paid in Ireland for eight millions of people. The change is, indeed, almost miraculous. It is a question with many whether this reform can be permanent. So far it has worked admirably, the proportion of violations of the pledge being not near so great as in the United States. But so far the move- ment has been onward: it has had all the energy of an aggressive power, all the buoyancy of youth, all the at- traction of novelty. But will the effects remain when the novelty is over Will men adhere to their tem- perance pledge when Father Mathew's voice can no longer animate them; when the bustle of' mass meet- ings, the din of temperance trumpets, the pomp of pro- cessions, the novelty of medals shall all have subsided G 2 242 WILL IT LAST This is. indeed, a grave and difficult question, and I can only answer it hypothetically. Should there be no improvement in the political and economical condition of Ireland; should she continue oppressed and degra- ded as she has been under British misrule; should the high hopes of national, or, at least, provincial independ- ence, which now swell the hearts of the people, be doomed to disappointment, then, indeed, will it be im- possible for any social reform to live in Irish soil. If the .people must be miserable, it will be impossible to keep them from the vice that was at once the cause and the solace of many of their ills. But if, on the other hand, there shall be a political regeneration of the Irish people, I believe it will be found that the majestic self- control which they have manifested in bursting at once the chains of anr indulgence which seemed incorporated with the national character, is but a feeble indication of the moral elevation to which they may be raised. Hith- erto they have been an anomaly among men. Brave to a fault, they have bowed their necks to an oppressive yoke for ages; generous beyond example, they have been their own worst enemies; kind and affectionate to a proverb, they have cherished enmities and feuds among themselves that have caused continual strife and bloodshed; energetic and enterprising, they have sunk to the very depths of poverty and degradation. But many of these inconsistencies may find their solution in the bondage which they have endured-not patiently, but with a constant remembrance of past wrongs, and a constant yearning for the day of vengeance. Men can- not develop a moral character in slavery; and, least of all, in a slavery like that of the Irish, which gives them the semblance of freedom, and allows them to cherish the hope of its reality. On the other hand, if the moral regeneration of the 243 Irish depends upon their physical and political condi- tion, it is also true that the latter may be much accel- erated by the beginning that has been made in the former. The prevalence of temperate habits, even for one generation, will make the mass of the Irish nation a different race. Hitherto they have been degraded even beneath British contempt: to fear the efforts of such a people never entered the mind of a British legislator. It has been safe to deny the rights of a wild, quarrelsome, and brutal people. But should these people cast out the devils that have possessed them, and stand up before the world, if not "clothed," yet " in their right minds;" should these men of strife learn, by subduing one pro- pcnsity, the master-secret of controlling their own pas- sions, England, which has so long refused justice to Ire- land degraded, will not dare to refuse it to Ireland re- generated. The Temperance reform'has been sedulously separa- ted, by its great apostle, Father Mathew, from all po- liti(.al movements. But, in reality, it is just such a movement. No man can look upon its mighty opera- tions in Ireland, and not see its bearing upon the great questions now at issue there. Without it, no man can believe that O'Connell would have been able to gather his myriads of ignorant countrymen together, again and again, not merely without bloodshed, but with a tran- quillity that astonishes even the Irish themselves. And though he has wisely seconded Father Mathew's views, by avoiding the employment of the Temperance orga- nizations, as such, in his Repeal agitation, he has, with equal wisdom, adopted for himself, and urged all his countrymen to adopt the principles and practice of the reform. Thus far, I know no reason to distrust the Temperance reform in Ireland; and freely, and from the bottom of my heart, do I wish it God speed. 244 WILL IT LAST IRELAND. CHAPTER XX. IRELAND. General Interest in the Irish Question.-Evils of Ireland.-Poverty.-Igno- rance.-Indolence.-Religious Feuds.-Romanism.-The Protestant Church Establishment.-Just Claims of Roman Catholics.-Large Es tates. - Landlord and Tenant. - Absenteeism.- Slavery of the People.- O'Connell.-Repeal. IRISti questions are at this day commanding universal attention. The indifference of England towards the distresses of her neighbour has given place to an earnest anxiety, and even to genuine sympathy. O'Connell complained, some years ago, that there was no feeling in English hearts in regard to Ireland but hatred; he has since retracted the unjust remark. Even in the highest Tory quarters kind and conciliatory feelings have found place to some extent. In my own inter- course with persons of all political parties, I found none who did not acknowledge the reality of the evils of Ire- land, and express anxiety that something should be done to remove them. In America, there is general attention to the condition of Ireland, and universal sympathy for her sufferings. It mav not be amiss, therefore, for me to occupy a few pages in stating the principal evils un- der which the noble Irish race are labouring. I have already spoken of the poverty of the Irish peasantry. No descriptions could convey an adequate idea of it to American readers. A nation in rags is for us an impossible conception. And yet, without a figure, the Irish nation is in rags. Six millions of the whole people are without decent clothing, sufficient food, or X 2 245 POVERTY AND 16NORANCE. comfortable abodes. It is estimated that, of the popu- lation of eight millions, two and a half millions depend for subsistence on charity. One of the evils of Ireland, then, the wretched poverty of the masses, lies upon the very surface. But there must be evils deeper than this -its ground and root. The Irish people are active, hardy, and quick-witted to a proverb; the Irish soil is fertile and easily tilled; the island is most favourably situated for commerce and manufactures; and yet the Irish people are, perhaps, the poorest in the civilized world. What is the cause of this anomaly Its causes must be found either in moral defects at- taching to the whole national character, or in vicious social and political institutions, or in a false religion, or in all these together. Let us look at them separately. As for the national character, it is in many points no- ble; but as I have repeatedly expressed my admiration of its best features, I may, without offence, allude to its chief defects as they now exhibit themselves. They are, indeed, moral evils resulting from unfortunate cir- cumstances and vicious legislation, rather than native elements of character. One of the most striking of these evils is ignorance, the frightful parent of countless miseries. The Irish peasantry are, perhaps, more intel- ligent, and yet more ignorant, than any other peasantry out of Russia. It is not merely in book learning that they are deficient; it is not merely that they cannot read or write; this, of itself, were bad enough; but this is not all. Thev are ignorant of the very art by which their daily bread is earned, of agriculture, of handicrafts, of all the mechanic arts. What but the densest igno- rance could have nourished the bitter strifes and feuds that have so long disgraced the Irish name What but the densest ignorance could induce the insane strife 246 INDOLENCE AND IMPROVIDENCE. against the laws of the land, which the lowest Irish con- sider it almost a virtue to violate But their ignorance is not merely the privation of light, but the infliction of darkness. The Irish mind, clear, acute, penetrating as it undoubtedly is, has been perverted and darkened by false and evil teaching, until it has learned to believe darkness light, and light darkness. Indolence and improvidence are also striking features of Irish character. The poor labourer, who has to se- cure, by his daily toil, from a few acres of ground, the support of his family, as well as the rent for his landlord, will waste in idleness day after day, and month after month, until the possibility of securing his crop is irre- coverably gone. The disposition to put off the work of to-day until to-morrow seems to be almost universal. And with this indisposition to labour is connected an im- providence that is proverbial. To-morrow is left to take care of itself. That this state of things exists in Ireland, cannot be questioned; but it appears equally clear that it has been brought about by the general hopelessness of the condition of the lower orders. The poor cottier sees that all his toil will not materially ele- vate his condition; that a greater degree of industry than he puts forth would only cause his landlord to raise his rent; and he subsides into a sluggish, almost indifferent way of life, working just enough to keep him- self and his family from starving. But the Irishman in America is another being. With the prospect before him of securing a bit of land, even a farm and a com- fortable home, he soon shakes off his idle habits, works as diligently, and saves as carefully as any of his neigh- bours. The truth seems to be, then, that nothing but the motive is wanting to make the Irish industrious and economical 247 One of the greatest evils with which Ireland is cur- sed is the spirit of Intolerance. Religious hatred has a bitterness there which is unknown in any other Chris- tian land. The history of Ireland, indeed, is almost a history of the war of creeds-Romanist and Protestant -for ascendency; and it is hard to say, at least in re- gard to former periods of that history, which of the two parties has exhibited the most virulent animosity. It is lamentable, indeed, to read of the wholesale confisca- tions, the horrid penal laws, the unjust condemnations, the imprisonments and the hangings, by which Protest- ant sway was established in Ireland; it is equally sad to find that a worse spirit, if worse were possible, in- pelled the Romanists of that period to the most sangui- nary revenge; and even at this day is cherished, or, at least, not rebuked, by the clergy of the Papal Church. Could this foul spirit be effectually checked, could Cath- olics and Protestants learn to look at each other freely as men, to consent to differ about religion, and unite freely in the great work of political reform, with thor- ough confidence on both sides, the day of Ireland's re- generation could not be long postponed. But, while I utterly abhor and condemn the persecu- tions with which Protestants pursued the Catholics of Ireland for centuries, I must still express my sincere opinion, that the greatest moral evil under which that country labours is the prevalence of the Roman Catho- lic religion. Protestants have persecuted Catholics; but it has been in spite of their principles, and has al- ways brought down upon them the condemnation of the Protestant world: but persecution has been the rule of the Roman Catholic Church wherever she has had power, and flows necessarily fiom her very principles. But it; as it may be said, the spirit of the age would pre- 248 INTOLERANCE. vent the exercise of persecution, should the Catholics gain power in Ireland, there is yet enough in the deba- sing tendency of the Romish faith to prevent the fair development of Irish character under its influence. The atmosphere of Romanism is the atmosphere of slavery. Freedom of thought it abhors. Private judgment it for- bids. Standing between man and his Maker, it pre- vents the possibility of a spiritual communion with the great source of all wisdom. Assuming infallibility, it necessarily breathes intolerance. Founded in error, it necessarily checks the advancement of knowledge, and takes ignorance-at least in religious matters-under its special protection. Itselfliving by deceit,it cannot educe an honest, frank, national character. If the history of modern Europe has settled any question, it has shown that, under a Romish government, there can be no ra- tional freedom. I am not prepared, from personal observation, to ex- press any opinion as to the actual character of individ- uals among the present Roman Catholic clergy of Ire- land. Without doubt there are many faithful men among them. But from the best information I was able to gather on the spot, and making all due allowance for the possible prejudices of Protestants, I cannot believe that, in general, they are safe guides for an ignorant people. Indeed, facts which no man can mistake, abun- dantly prove this. The Catholic clergy control the minds and conduct of a large majority in Ireland; by their own showing they have the affection and confi- dence of the people to an extent unprecedented in his- torv, and yet what is the fruit of their labours Until within the last ten years it has been evil, only evil, and that continually. What might not such a body of men, wielding so potent an influence, have effected in purify- RO.MANIS-M. 249 THE PROTESTANT E6TARBLISHMENT. ing the hearts, elevating the mninds, and improving the conduct of the people under their control To be sure, Father Mathew has done wonders; but his is a solitary instance of virtuous effort, undertaken at first on his - own responsibility, and carried on for some time with- out the co-operation, nay, in face of the opposition of a large proportion of the clergy. But in the great work of extinguishing the spirit of prejudice and intolerance, of educating the mass of the people in moral duty, of teaching them their true interests for this life and the next, I fear that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland have been lamentably deficient. But whatever may be thought of the Roman Catholic religion in itself, it seems to me that no honest Protest- ant can vindicate the oppressive ecclesiastical system by which England binds a Roman Catholic people to the support of Protestantism. The Episcopalians of Ireland form, perhaps, one tenth of the population; and yet to them are given the fruits of the Catholic Church endowments of former ages; to them belong the cathe- drals, the churches, the Episcopal palaces, the parson- ages, and the glebes; it is for them that the tithe, that most iniquitous of existing ecclesiastical abominations, is levied ; while the religion of the vast majority of the people obtains nothing, or next to nothing, in the way of support from the state. It is impossible that perma- nent tranquillity should be realized in Ireland while this enormous outrage upon the feelings, the interests, and the rights of the Roman Catholic majority remain. It is not in human nature to endure such oppression, hypo- critically sanctified though it be under the guise of re- ligion and Protestantism; and it ought not to be en- dured. Were I an Irishman, as I am an Americanrand a Protestant, I should cease my efforts for the over- 250 THIE ECCLESITSfICAL SYSTEM.2 throw of the ecclesiastical system only wsth my life. Bad as is the effect of the Establishment in England, it is infinitely worse in Ireland. In the former country, a large portion of the population revere the Establishment itself, and all, it may be said, profess the Protestant re. ligion which the Church represents; yet, notwithstand- ing this, so great are the grievances, so multiplied are the evils resulting from the union of Church and State, that the system appears to be tending to destruction. But the grievances of English Protestant Dissenters are absolutely nothing in comparison with those of Irish Catholics. They are the poorest part of the population, and yet must support not merely their own religious worship, which, from its very character, must be far more expensive than the Protestant system, but also support the Protestant system itself, which they abhor as anti-Christain. The ecclesiastical system of Ireland has been an effectual barrier, if there were no other, against the spread of Protestantism in that country. The kingdom of Christ never has been and never will be advanced by the use of carnal weapons; it "is not of this world." Whatever may be the ulterior views of the present Revolutionary party in Ireland, they stand at present, I find the following estimate of the revenues of the Irish Catholic Church quoted in the Ecclesiastica, from the Congregational Calendar for 1844: Fees Aggr. Amr't. sd. s. Confessions.i 0 to 5 300,000 Christenings.2 6 to 5 33,333 Unctions and burials 60,000 Marriages. . . 20 to 40 360,000 Purgatorial prayers . 5 to 15 100,000 Collections at chapels. . . . . 541,632 Curates' collection. . . . 22,500 Government grant to Maynooth College . . 9,000 X1,426,465 251 THE PROTESTANT ESTABLI611MENT. with reference to this question of Church and Statc at least, upon right ground. They demand the overthrow of the ecclesiastical system, but do not ask the estab- lishment of a Roman Catholic system in its place. They profess to have no faith in establishments, and ask only that the Roman Catholics of Ireland may be freed from the intolerable burden of supporting Protest- autism, and allowed to maintain their own pastors, and their own worship, by their voluntary efforts. Surely this is all right; and so far as right alone is demanded, no consistent Protestant can withstand the claims of Irish Roman Catholics. " Ireland feels the ancient and long-continued injustice to the heart's core. The Cath- olic people of Ireland support and maintain a perfect hierarchy in their own church. They support four archbishops, twenty-five bishops, many deans, and vie- ars-gencral, with more than three thousand parish priests and curates, to administer to the spiritual wants of about seven millions of Christians. Can they, ought they to be content to be compelled to contribute any- thing to the support of a hierarchy with which they are not in communion No ! they are not-they cannot- they ought not to be content while one atom of the present tithe system remains in existence. If tithes be public property-and what else are they -alleviate the burden on the public, and appropriate the residue to public and national purposes, especially to education. This is common sense and common honesty. We can never settle into contentment with less." Surely, Dan- iel O'Connell speaks wisely. I cannot allude to all the political evils under which Ireland groans. A volume would hardly suffice to re- cite them. The fundamental evil, perhaps, lies in the en- equal distribution of property throughout Ireland. The 252 DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY. whole country is divided into immense estates, acquired I will not say how, and held by noble families, who, in general, have no sympathies whatever with the people, and are their most severe oppressors. The revenues of many of these estates are incredibly large. In gen- eral. the great proprietor does not let the land immedi- ately to the cultivators, but to a class of middlemen, who take large tracts on lease, cut them up and underlet them, mostly by yearly leases, to the occupying tenants. No system could be more effectual, if its very design were to prevent the improvement of the soil and of the condition of its cultivators. Instead of being stimulated to industry in order to make his abode more comforta- ble, and his few acres more profitable, the poor cottier really fears that any improvement would only slip through his own fingers, and go to increase the rents of his landlord. In some quarters, the class of middle- men is passing away, and the large proprietors are be- ginning to grant short leases directly to the cultivators; but the demand for land is so great, that the rents are run up to a ruinous extent. The present rents for good lands vary from pound;3 to 8 per acre, according to the quality and nearness to market. As things go, if the tenant can pay his rent and keep his family from star- ving, he does well. A singular mode of renting lands, called the con-acre system, prevails extensively in the south of Ireland. The lessee of a tract of land manures, ploughs, and prepares it for seed, and then lets it out in small lots to different persons, who undertake to sow the seed, secure the harvest, and pay a fixed rent for the soil; usually, on good farnms, pound;8 per acre. Under such circumstances, the tenant cannot hope to improve his condition; nor has he any encouragement to make the attempt. As for saving money from the wages of VOL. II.-Y 253 labour, an Irish peasant never dreams of it. In many parts of Ireland constant employment with sixpence a day cannot be had; the average price throughout the island is not over tenpence a day, and I do not believe it is so much. Of course, as the price of provisions is high, the labourer never tastes meat: potatoes are his subsistence. In travelling through Ireland, you will scarcely find a man in country, town, or city, that holds a farm or house and lot in fee simple. Much of the city of Dublin is in this predicament: Belfast belongs to Lord Donegal; this town belongs to Lord Limerick, that to Lord Ken- mare, and a third to lord somebody else. Whatever im- provements a man may make upon his farm or town lot revert to the owner on the expiration of the lease; and if the improvements are valuable, the man must actually pay an additional rent on account of what he himself has created, before he can obtain a renewal of the lease. It is obvious that, under this wretched sys- tem, the country itself may improve, and the great land- ed proprietors increase in wealth, while there is no im- provement whatever in the condition of the masses. Any additional value that may be given to a country by gov- ernment measures, or by the industry of its cultivators, serves only to put additional rents into the pockets of the lordly owners. It follows from all this that there is no middle class in Ireland, except the tradesmen and shop- keepers in towns and cities. But, perhaps, the worst evil that can be mentioned in this connexion is absenteeism. It might be supposed that the revenues of these overgrown proprietors, ex- pended among the people, would greatly relieve the public distress. Alas ! the proprietors themselves know nothing, and care nothing in general, about their estates 254 ABSENTEEISM. or tenants, except to wring the last penny of rent, to be spent in the debauchery and extravagance of London or Paris. Here and there, in Ireland, you may find a nobleman or gentleman living on his estate, and exert- ing himself for the improvement of his people; but, in .general, they live in England, and are rarely seen in their own territory. I know that many excuses are of- fered for this-want of good society, insecurity of life and property of Protestants in the midst of a Catholic population, c.; but they are all in vain: men have no right to hold these immense estates who will not take the responsibilities that belong to the possession of prop- erty. That they have no sympathy with the people, is lamentably true; but this, instead of excusing absentees, is only one element of their criminality. Competition in renting lands has been a fruitful cause of disturbance and bloodshed in Ireland. Severe pun- ishments, even unto death, are frequently inflicted on intruders, i. e., persons who take a piece of land at a. rent for the nonpayment of which a former tenant was ejected. A case occurred not long ago on Lord Duna- more's estate. His agent had turned off a defaulting tenant, and brought an active, industrious farmer (a Catholic) to take his place. On a Sunday evening, he was sitting at his door enjoying a mug of cider, when several men came up to him and told him lie had taken land over the head of a tenant, and his life was the for- feit. He declared his willingness to depart from the farm immediately; but they murdered him in cold blood. Everybody recollects that Lord Norbury was shot in open daylight, on his own grounds, a few years since, because of the grinding oppression of his conduct towards his tenantry. Instances of this dreadful and summary vengeance could be adduced in any number, 255 INTUU'DER'3. VESTED RIGHTS. Many suppose, erroneously, that most of these atroci- ties spring from religious animosities; that Catholics are the murderers, and Protestants the victims. If this were so, all the victims would be Protestants. I have mentioned the Catholic farmer who was murdered as an intruder: between Limerick and Killarney, I passed a field where two men, both Catholics, had met with a similar fate on the same ground. From what stand-point soever we contemplate the state of Ireland, it is painful in the extreme. To see a nation, full of noble traits of character, and capable of great things, inhabiting a land bountifully endowed by Providence, fruitful enough to supply all their wants; to see such a people, on such a soil, living in ignorance, degradation, and beggary, is indeed a lamentable thing. And then to think that what the soil does produce, un- der the toil of these wretched millions, instead of being applied to the supply of their own wants, and the im- provement of their own condition, goes to pamper an idle aristocracy in another land, and to support an idle priesthood in their own-one can hardly refrain fiom asking, Is there no justice in man And when we ask why should these things be why cannot this ecclesi- astical system be suppressed, these immense estates be divided, these ignorant millions be educated we are answered with the state pretence by which all the op. pressions in the British Empire are defended-that Prot- estantism must be preserved, and vested rights sustain- ed ! For myself, I freely say, that if Protestantism can be sustained only by oppressions and abuses, the sooner Protestantism falls, the better. If the vested rights of a few involve the ruin of the many, the sooner vested rights are swept away, the better. But Proiestantism, thank God, rests on no such sandy foundation. They 256 JUSTICE TO IRELAND. who thus defend her, are her worst enemies. And vest- ed rights, such as these referred to, will be found, on a careful analysis, to be vested wrongs. Englishmen taunt us with our Southern slavery; and when we tell them that, by the Constitution of the United States, the states in which slavery exists have sole jurisdiction in the matter, they upbraid us for our hypocrisy or cow- ardice. But here are evils as great in reality, if not in name, as American slavery, resting upon no other ba- sis than mere expediency, avowedly so; and yet they do not dare to touch them ! It is idle to think of restoring tranquillity to Ireland without affording her justice. The politicians of Eng- land are beginning to learn this truth. Would that they might not only learn it, but act upon it before it is too late. The wrongs under which Ireland labours, and the unwillingness of England to redress them, give con- stant occasion for agitation, and it is well. O'Connell is blamed for agitation, but he knows full well the strength of a people's voice in these days. He knows that by agitation alone have the Irish people obtained the rights which they already enjoy, and he and his as- sociates are wisely bent on agitation until the full meas- ure of justice to Ireland is accomplished. His present avowed object, the repeal of the union, is so obviously impracticable, that it is hardly worth while to speculate upon its possible results. Repeal cannot be demanded as a matter of justice in itself, but only as the surest means of obtaining justice. In staking all, therefore, upon the question of Repeal, Mr. O'Connell loses the advantage of an impregnable position, and alienates Writers in distinguished British periodicals, when writing in earnest on the wretched condition of the labouring population of England and Ireland, do not hesitate to call them "4 slaves," to all intents and purposes. Y 2 257 258 O'CONNELL. from his ranks many of the best friends of his country. Multitudes in England would assist in obtaining justice who would resist Repeal, even at the expense of civil war. For the present, at least, I consider the whole scheme of Repeal as Utopian; but yet I am very sure that the combinations to which it has given rise, and the universal agitation of the popular mind which it has caused, will result in great good. Agitation obtained the relaxation of the penal laws; agitation secured Catholic emancipation; and agitation, in the end, will overthrow the ecclesiastical systern, put a stop to secta- rian legislation, and secure to Irishmen at least a possi- bility of improving their condition. Yet, after all, I can- didly confess that I do not expect permanent tranquilli- ty in Ireland. until the large estates are done away; and that can hardly come to pass without a revolution. THE CHURCH Ot ENdLAND. CHAPTER XXI. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Prejudice in favour of the Church of England. -Awakening of the Public Mind in regard to her exclusive Claims. - Change of European Policy. - No more Religious Wars.-Policy of England favourable to Romanism.- The Church of England a Political Institution.-Patronage.-Simony.- Church Revenues.- Enormous Incomes of Bishops.-Inefficiency of the. Church.-Statistics. I GAVE as much attention as possible to the condition of the Church of England during my stay in that coun- try. Though aware of the many evils arising from her connexion with the state, and that she was far from oc- cupying the commanding position as a powerful branch of the Church Catholic which she might have held but for that unfortunate connexion, I had always been dis- posed to cherish feelings of affectionate reverence for the Church herself. All my early prejudices were in her favour. The religious principles of my own Church were derived from her authorized standards. Her no- ble writers had furnished my favourite reading in the- ology; by a ritual, abridged from hers, I had always partaken of the Holy Eucharist, and by an office, ob- tained in the same way, I had been ordained to the work of the ministry. Accustomed to regard her as the bul- wark of Protestantism, I heard the charges brought against her by her enemies with distrust, and was dis- posed, so far as feeling was concerned, to palliate her errors and abuses. Whatever I may say, then, at present unfavourably in regard to her real condition, cannot be set down to the score of prejudice. 259 THE BULWARK OF PROTESTANTISM. Within the last ten years the minds of many of the friends of the Church of England have been painfully awake to the dangers that beset her from her connexion with the state; but the feeling was confined, until a very late period, to men who had given more than common attention to the subject. But of late the progress of Pu- seyism has startled the common mind. In 1842 the in- troduction of Sir James Graham's Factory Education Bill alarmed the fears of Dissenters and Methodists, and the sudden disruption of the Established Church of Scot- land filled the nation with surprise. Everybody recur- red to the question of Church and State with new in- terest; a thousand piercing eyes were turned at once upon the Establishment, intent upon examining her claims. Her exclusive pretensions to religious authori- tv, reiterated with wonderful infatuation, provoked a keen and searching inquiry on the part of many who had before been disposed to regard her with indulgence, if not with affection. In some quarters the verdict is already pronounced; in others, the investigation is still going on; but the issue cannot be doubtful. There must either be a thorough reform of the Church Estab- lishment, or it must fall. The Church of England, in connexion with the state, might with some truth have been called the bulwark of Protestantism in Europe from the time of the accession of Elizabeth to that of the peace of Westphalia ; for, during that period, the wars of Europe were principally contests between Romanism and Protestantism as rep- resented by states. When the Netherlands were fight- ing the battle of Protestantism, England contributed largely to their assistance. But since the period refer- red to, England has done little or no service to Protest- antism, except as the glory of her arts and arms has re- 260 POLICY OF ENGLAND. flected lustre upon it; and the Church of England has done little, except so far as she may have presented, if, indeed, she has presented, a barrier to the increase of Catholicism in Great Britain herself. After the peace of Westphalia, the advances of the House of Austria in political power gave birth to a new policy in Europe. States began to regard their integ- rity and independence more than their religion; gov- ernments combined to establish and secure the equilib- rium of power, and not to promote or defend religious systems. Protestant and Catholic states were now bound in amityv and their united armies were often led to battle under a common general. In the same camp the Roman Catholic priest celebrated the mass and gave absolution to penitents, while the Protestant clergyman preached justification by faith alone, and administered the Lord's Supper according to Reformed usages. Re- lifgion was left to defend itself with its own appropriate weapons. England adopted this policy as completely as the Continental nations; and the Church has ceased to derive any power to resist Romanism from the con- nexion with the State. Beyond all question, the policy of England, both foreign and domestic, for the last cen- tury. has been favourable to Romanism rather than Prot- estantism. She has fought for every Roman Catholic state except France; against France she fought for twenty-five years, and did not sheath her sword until she had restored the worn-out, bigoted, Romanist dv- nasty of the elder Bourbons. Nor has her domestic policy been less favourable to Roman Catholics. She has gradually relieved them from legal disabilities, until they stand on the same platform with their Dis- senting Protestant fellow-citizens before the law; she has removed all restraints upon their advancement in !261 THE CHURCH A POLITICAL INSTITUTION. political life; and she has secured their religious privi- leges on the same grounds as those of other Dissenters. In all this she has done nothing more than strict justice; but I am speaking now, not of the morality of her acts, but of the acts themselves. The Church of England, then, must be examined as to its efficiency as a branch of the Church Catholic under its present organization, by which it is connected with the state, yet destitute of the power of directing the ac- tion of the state against Roman Catholicism. A single glance at the constitution of the Established Church of England reveals its political character. The sovereign of the nation, though a queen, is the supreme head of the Church on earth. The throne of England would not be an earthly throne if it did not use the body of which it is the head-by virtue of its beirg head of the State-for political purposes. The main purpose for which a church can be used in such a relation to the State is that of strengthening the State; and for this purpose the Church of England is indeed a powerful engine. The prelates are members of the national legis- lature by virtue of their office; and as they are de- pendent upon the throne for promotion, it is impossible not to see their liability to sacrifice spiritual interests to political expediency. The rule of their conduct must be the wish of the sovereign; or, according to the pres- ent working of the British Constitution, the wishes of the ministry, which is far worse, for the ministers are only the leaders of that political party which may have the ascendency for the time. The manifold evils of this state of things have attracted, of late years, much attention, not merely among the English people, but among the clergy of the Establishment themselves. Says the Right Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, "As 262 long as the right of patronage is unrestricted, the min- ister of the crown may nominate any adherent to a bishopric-the political nominee of the crown may ap- point to the livings in his gift any clergyman who may suit his fancy-the lord-chancellor, for the time being, with any religious opinions, or none, may put whom he wxiii, out of above twelve thousand clergy, into eight hundred crown livings-college livings may be obtain- ed by classical and mathematical learning-sporting and gaming patrons may appoint to the livings in their gift their companions in the chase or at the card-table- and unscrupulous parents may enrich unprincipled sons with their family preferment. With this system of patronage, what reason have we to hope that any spir- itual improvement of the Establishment, which may begin in one generation, shall be extended unto the next At the very foundation of the Church there is a permanent source of worldliness, which seems to secure an endless succession of worldly ministers." This is the voice of one of the first clergymen in the Church for rank, talent, and piety. Says the Rev. Thomas Spencer, A.M., perpetual cu- rate of Hinton, formerly fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge: " The bishops are generally placed in their elevated stations by the patronage of the nobility and the gov- ernment; and when so placed, they look to their patrons for farther promotion. A bishop, if he pleases the gov- ernment, is removed to a more lucrative bishopric; so that the same diocess has two or three bishops within a single year, none of whom seriously attend to its welfare, but merely wait for a higher step, to obtain which, they are not unfrequently led to act as dishon- ourable-a part in the House of Lords as the mere place- man or pensioner does in the House of Commons." PATRONAGE. 263 The same political influence is seen in the multiplica- tion of sinecure offices in the Church, unknown to the Scriptures; such as those of archdeacons, sub-deacons, deans, prebends, canons, minor canons, precentors, vie- ars choral, c. These do no sertice to religion, and are only a charge upon the ecclesiastical revenue. They existed under the Roman Catholic hierarchy as provis- ions for favourites, and the members of wealthy fami- lies. At the Reformation under Henry VIII., they were simply transferred to the crown and the nobility, to be used for the same purpose. To these are to be added the parish livings, all available for the same ends. So that there are more than ten thousand places in the Church, in England and Wales, each to be given away by its patron, without any reference whatever to the wishes or welfare of the people to be served. I take the following table of livings, which are at the disposal of their respective patrons, from the Ecclesiastica, or Church Record, for 1844: The crown has .952 livings to give away. Archbishop and Bishops. . . .1,248 Deans and Chapters. . . . . 787 Ecclesiastical Dignitaries. . . .1,851 Universities, Colleges, and Hospitals, . 721 Private owners (of whom 2320 belong to the nobility) . . . . 5,096 Municipal Corporations. . . 53 Not returned . . . . 279 10,987 To these are to be added fifteen hundred livings in Ireland to be disposed of in the same way, making the total number of benefices in the gift of the govern- ment, directly or indirectly through the nobility, gentry, dignitaries of the Church, and corporations, above elev- en thousand. The whole of this rich and powerful es- tablishment is independent of the action of the people, 264 PATRONAdE. and is regarded and used by the aristocracy as a vast domain for the special benefit of their younger sons and favour'tes. To but a very small extent indeed is it used to reward merit, or to cure the souls of the people. Among the five thousand private patrons are found even young ladies, widows, and trustees of deceased persons. This system of patronage necessarily introduces to the rich livings many incumbents who have neither the inclination nor the ability to perform the duties of clergy- men. To relieve them, the practice has obtained of em- ploying curates to do their work at salaries of from for- ty to one hundred pounds per annum, while they reside in town, and, perhaps, scarcely enter the parish once a year. This practice divides the clergy into the resident and nonresident; the idle and dignified clergy, and the working and neglected clergy. Were I to say this on my own authority or that of Dissenters, the reader might not believe me. I quote, then, from the Ecclesi- astica mentioned above. Nonresident clergy, 373i6 Resident ..6699 These numbers do not include the 5230 curates who perform half the real work of the clergy for the aggre- gate slum of pound;424,695, while the, incumbents who hold the livings. and for whom they perform the work, re- ceive millions sterling for services which they do not perform. But another result of this system of patronage and curacy is still more injurious to religion and the inter- ests of the people. The right of presentation to a liv- ing is often sold, and the sale is frequently advertised in the public papers. The case stands thus: A certain parish living is worth pound;1000 a year (about 4,500), and VOL. II.-Z SIMONYt. 265 CHURCH REVENUES. the patron who has the right of giving it away is a pri- vate gentleman, or even a young lady. The incum- bent is old, and cannot be expected to live long. An- other person has a son whom he designs for the Church, but he has not interest enough at court, or with the no- bility or dignitaries of the Church, to obtain a good liv- in, for him. He therefore calculates the probable titme the aged minister will live, and buys for a few thousand pounds, from the private patron, the right to make the next presentation to the living upon the death of the in- cumbent. Of course, when this event occurs, the pur- chaser presents his own son, who may be both a block- head and a sinner. Yet he becomes the rector; and as he does not wish to reside, nor to do the work of an evangelist. he bargains with a curate to do the work for fifty or one hundred pounds per annum, and retains the remaining nine hundred pounds, thus makin, a clear speculation of about 4000 a year. Is not this simony in its worst form The same system prevails in Ireland, only to a great- er extent. The revenues of the church, and their distribution, are attracting much attention, vet it is remarkable that the truth cannot be ascertained with respect to either of these points. Some estimates make the revenue about four mill- ions sterling, others six, others eight. and the Westminster "The smaller the stipends of the curates, the greater is the income of these wealthy incumbents. Is it on this account that many incumbents and patrons, in country parishes, refuse to allow more than one sermon to be preached every Sunday "1 Precisely so. They say that any increase of duty will diminish the value of the living; and the price a purchaser will give them will depend, in part, on the easy duty."-Rcv. T. Spencer. Sometimes the life interest of the incumbent clergyman is purchased to. gether with the right of presentation, and then the purchaser enters immnedi- ately into the enjoyment of the living. 266 CHURCH REVENUES. Review nine millions sterling, or about forty millions of dollars. Of this sum, two millions sterling are lay tithes, that is, private property, having become such by some abuse in the administration. It has been computed that the ecclesiastical revenue of the United Kingdom is great- er than the sum required to maintain the whole Chris- tian rninistry of the world besides. This may not be exactly true, but it is very near the truth. The expense of public worship in France, charged upon the treas- ury, for Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, in 1842, was only pound;1,480,000, which supports double the number of clergy that some five millions sterling is required to sup- port in England. The difference is still more striking between the United States and England. The distribution of this vast ecclesiastical revenue is becoming a subject of eager inquiry in England. Three classes of men are in the receipt of it: the prelates of the Church, who do some service; the sinecures and nonresidents, who do none; and the resident rectors and the curates, who really do the work. With the ex- ception of the curates, it is impossible to ascertain what is the salary of any churchman. The returns to Par- liarnent show the nett proceeds of each living; but then there are tithes, fees, and parsonage houses and grounds, not taken into the account. The amount and nature of the ecclesiastical revenue, and the appropriation of it, are so mystified by those who are interested in them, that the mass of the people cannot clearly comprehend the matter. It is agreed that much of it is appropri- ated to persons who render no service at all, or such service as is of no worth to the people. It is also agreed that the revenue is most unequally distributed; some prelates receiving as much as pound;25,000 to 30,000 (140,000) annually, while the average salaries of the 267 INCOMEIS OF BISHOPS. resident clergy would not be more than pound;400, and the average of the curates' quite under pound;100. Many of these excellent and laborious men receive not more than pound;40 to 50 each annually. The clergy list for 1842 sets down the salaries of the principal bishops: Archbishop of Canterbury. . pound;17,000 875,000 " York.10,000 44,000 Bishop of London.11,700 51,948 4 4 Winchester . . . . 10,500 46,620 The remaining twenty-three bishops do not receive so much each; but graduate downward to his lordship of Sodor and Man, who receives only pound;2000, and is denied a seat in the House of Lords. But although these enormous sums are set down in the clergy list, there is no doubt but that the receipts are very much greater in each case. The dignitaries of the Church themselves do not hesitate, in case of family quarrels, to abuse each other in regard to these revenues. The Bishop of London thus discourses in the House of Lords about the sinecures attached to St. Paul's Cathedral : " I pass the magnificent church which crowns the metropolis, and is consecrated to the noblest of objects, the glory of God, and I ask myself in what degree it answers its object. I see there a dean and three residentiaries, with incomes amounting in the ag- gregate to between ten and twelve thousand pounds a year; I see, too, connected with the cathedral, twenty- nine clergymen, whose offices are all but sinecures, with an annual income of twelve thousand pounds, and likely to be very much larger after a lapse of a few years. I The Archbishop of Paris has a salary of 100,000 frs.=18,800. Each French cardinal receives pound;30,000 frs.=5640. Each bishop in France re- ceives pound;15,000 frs.=2820. The scale is graduated downward as the rank of the recipient declines; and all is paid out of the public treasury. This is as it should be, if the Church is connected with the State. 268 INCOMES OF BISHOPS. proceed a mile or two to the east and northeast, and find myself in the midst of an immense population, in the most wretched destitution and neglect: artisans, mechanics, labourers, beggars, thieves, to the number of three hundred thousand." The Rev. Sydney Smith, the wittiest of Whigs, hap- pens to be a canon of St. Paul's, and thus turns upon his lordship: " This stroll in the metropolis is extremely well con- trived for your lordship's speech; but suppose, my dear lord, that instead of going east and northeast, you had turned about, crossed London Bridge, and resolving to make your walk as impartial as possible, had proceeded in a southwest direction, you would soon, in that case. have perceived a vast palace, containing not a dean, three residentiaries, and twenty-nine clergymen. but one attenuated prelate, with an income, enjoyed by him- self alone, amounting to pound;30,000 per annum, twice as great as that of all these confiscated clergymen put to- gether; not one penny of it given up by act of Parlia- ment during his life to that spiritual destitution he so deeply deplores, and pound;15,000 per annum secured to his successor; though all the duties of the office might be most effectually performed for one third of the salary." The same excess in receipts of the prelates will appear from the following passage from the Examiner for June 26, 1840: '"Remarkable it is that, notwithstanding all the charities of the bishops, they die richer than any other class of men. By the probates at Doctors' Commons, it appeared in 1828 that the personal property of twenty- four bishops who had died within the preceding twenty years amounted to the enormous suLm of pound;1,649,000, aln average of nearly pound;70,000 for each bishop. This was the sworn value of the personal property only, and Z 2 29 27 0 INEFFICIENCY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT. some of the bishops are known to have had very large possessions in real property. Now we will venture to assert that in no other profession will it be found that so large an average of wealth has been left by the heads; take the twenty-four last generals, the twenty- four last admirals, the twenty-four last judges, nay, the twenty-four last merchants, and their personal property will not equal that of the bishops, nor approach it. So that, after all, the charities of the holy men do not hurt them ; and if they liye poorer than other men, yet some- how or other they die richer." A church with such revenues, so administered, can offer but little security for the morality, not to say the piety of the clergy. Besides, her connexion with the government taints her with political vices; while the great inequality of her clergy establishes an aristocra- cy within the kingdom of Christ; a kingdom in which our Lord said, that he who would be greatest, must be servant of all. Notwithstanding the Establishment had original pos- session of the population; notwithstanding its connex- ion with the government gave it great influence, and se- vere laws were long in force to repress dissent; not- withstanding her immense ecclesiastical revenue, and her exclusive possession of the universities and founda- tions of learning; yet it is now ascertained that she has scarcely one half of the population of England and Wales in attendance on her ministry; while the other half is drawn under the instruction of the Methodists and Dissenters. This fact shows remarkable inefficien- cy in the Establishment, or great energy among the Methodists and Dissenters; or, perhaps, both. 'The inefficiency of the Establishment, and the ener- gy among other churches, may be still more strikingly CHURCH SITTINGS. seen in the relative accommodation which they afford the people in their churches and chapels. The Estab- lishment had the ancient Church property as a founda- tion to build on; the other churches had nothing but what the people contributed, after bearing their portion of the expense of the Establishment. Yet, as early as 1832, the number of churches of the Establishment was 2533, and the number of chapels belonging to the Meth- odists and Dissenters was 3438. Since 1832, the in- crease of Dissenting places of worship over those of the Establishment is still greater. Even in the metropo- lis, the churches and chapels of the Establishment, ac- cording to a careful survey, published in the Congrega- tional Magazine for December, 1838, would seat only 259,956, while the other independent churches togeth- er had 257,658 sittings ; or, in general terms, the same number. But when we go into the manufacturing dis- tricts, the difference is much in favour of the Dissenters and Methodists. Take the great manufacturing coun- ties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Derby- shire, and, according to careful returns made in 1842, the number of churches and chapels of the Establish- ment was 383, accommodating 377,104 people, while the churches and chapels of other denominations amounted to 1258, accommodating 617,479 people. And, again, when the church accommodation in the manufacturing districts, where Methodists and Dissent- ers prevail, is compared with the same in the metropo- lis, commercial towns, and rural districts, the result is much against the Church. In the city of London, the whole number of sittings in all places of worship, as compared with the population, is 36 per cent.; in West- minster, the court end of the town, only 30 per cent.; 271 272 INEFFICIENCY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. while in Yorkshire it is 49-t per cent.; and in the man- ufacturing districts, taken together, it is 45 per cent. Thus it appears that the Independent denorninations in England, on the voluntary principle, have procured greater results in everything for which a church ought to exist than the Establishment, with all its wealth and state. These facts are becoming fully known to the people, and the conviction is gradually but surely spreading, that, as the Church of England is no longer the bulwark of Protestantism, by reason of her con- nexion with the State, and has recently shown a strong tendency to Romanism, and does not really feed and care for the people, as do the other denominations, she cannot be regarded in any other light than a rich in- heritance for the young nobility and sons of wealthy gentlemen, and as an instrument of government in the hands of the ministry ; and, from recent indications, it is clear that the great body of the Wesleyans would see that her reduction would be of immense advantage to the interests of religion, did they not believe that she is I have been very anxious to see Dr. Baird's book on Religion in Amer- ica, but have not been able to obtain an English copy, and the American edition is not yet issued. I have seen a reference to it in an English paper, in which it is said, `The population of America is about 17,000,000, and the voluntary principle has provided church accommodation for more than 12.000,000, and this in exclusive connexion with the evangelical denomirra- tiois. Nor is this all: the same principle provides an evangelical minister for about J 200 souls. It is also providing for the annual increase of the pop- ullation in the following ratio: Taking the increase from 1837 to 1840, it has provided an evangelical minister for every 690 souls, and a place of Christian worship for every 500. "i It annually raises, for the support of evangelical ministers, no less a sum than 4.4C0,200 dollars, while it annually erects about 880 sanctuaries!" The same results have been obtained from the voluntary principle in Scot. arnd. Ins a inemnorial of the elders of the Church, presented to Parliament iii the spring of 1813, they say that the Established Church of the kingdom erected only sixty-three churches from 1734 to 1834, while the dissenting cumuxunions erected six hundred places of worship in the same time. STATISTIC6S. 273 now so incorporated with the State that her destruction would be, if not the destruction of the State, at least a revolution in it-perhaps the infusion of a spirit of Re- publicanism into the great body of the people. If there were no State church, it is scarcely to be supposed that the Wesleyans would favour the creation of one, and, certainly, not one so strongly tending to corrup- tion. If they should still think it the duty of the State to provide for the public observance of religion, they would find a much purer plan in the payment to each clergyman of a reasonable salary, according to his rank and work, out of the public treasury, and wholly destroy the system of crown, corporation, and private patron- age. This would set free several millions sterling an- nually towards paying the interest on the public debt, thus reducing the taxes in this respect one third. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS. In Great Britain there are Archbishops 2 Bishops . .25 Incumbents on livings . 10,987 Curates . .5,230 Total clergy . 16,217 Ecclesiastical revenue, about eight millions sterling. In Ireland there are Parishes .2450 These are so combined as to form Benefices. . . 1396 Archbishops. . . 2 Bishops . . . 10 Parochial clergy 1075 Prebendaries. . . 180 Dignitaries. . . 167 Assistant Curates 750 Total clergy . . . . -2182 Since writing the above, I see that a General Conference is to be held in England, composed of all who are opposed to the union of Church and State. This may produce an Anti-Church and State League The ecclesiastical revenue is about one million and a half sterling. This arises in part from tithes, and in part from church lands, of which 90,000 acres belong to the parochial clergy and 670,000 to the bishops. The population under the instruction of the Irish Church does not exceed a tenth part of the people of Ireland. The Church of Scotland, before the great secession of 1843. had about 1100 ministers, all resident, and not a case of plurality. Five hundred vacancies were crc- ated by the secession, but many have been filled since; so that the number of ministers and churches will be much increased in Scotland by the secession. The revenue of the Scotch Establishment is, perhaps, pound;500,000 ; the salaries of the ministers would scarcely average pound;250; verv few reach 1000, and not many fall below pound;200, including manses and glebes. In the Ecclesiastica, I see the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland set down at " 4000, including four archbish- ops, 24 bishops, 28 deans, 28 vicars-general, and 52 professors, besides the regular clergy, occupied among a population of 7,000,000." The same authority es- timates the annual receipts of the Romish clergy of Ireland at pound;1,426,465=6,333,505. If we consider the Roman Catholics as Dissenters, and count all other denominations, not within the com- munions of the churches of England, Ireland, and Scot- land, the whole population of the three kingdoms will be divided nearly- In the State churches . . . . 10,000,000. In all other churches . . . . 16,000,000. Thus it will be seen that only about two out of five of the population are in the State churches; while three out of five belong to the other communions. If we deduct the Catholic population of the United Kingdom, then the remaining Protestant population is nearly equally divided between the State churches and the other Protestant churches. 274 fSTATISTICS. nOMAN1SM.27 CHAPTER XXII. ROMAN CATHOLICISM. Increase of Romanism in England.-The Roman Catholic Church a Mis- sionary Churclh.-Statistics.-Historical Sketch.-Energy of the Papal Movemnents.-Elements of Power in the Roman Church.-Ceremonies at Prague-Naples--Rome.-Duty of Protestants. I HAD intended to make but a few remarks in this place upon Roman Catholicism in England, reserving all general views of the subject to be connected with a notice of the city of Rome. Circumstances have com- pelled me, however, to defer, for the present at least, the publication of my Journal of Observations in Ger- manay and Italy ; and I deem it best to present here a few thoughts upon the present position of Roman'sm throughout the world. The Reformation in England, as settled under the reign of Elizabeth, accomplished the destruction of the Catholic Church in the island. Not only were her sa. cred edifices converted to the uses of others, her con- gregrations dispersed, and the offices of her priesthood prohibited, but the private Catholic citizen was weighed down by every civil disability. Indeed, only a vestige of the Catholic population could be found in the island. So late as 1767, the return made to the House of Lords showed a Catholic population amounting to only 67,916; and in 1780, it amounted to no more than 69,876. But in 1844 it amounts to at least two millions. In This statement of the Catholic population of Great Britain is made on the authority of the Rev. Dr. Dixon of the Wesleyan Connexion, in a Lec. ture on Popery, delivered before several societies in England. 275 RArID INCREASE OF ROMANI13M. 1790 there were not 40 chapels in England and Whales; in 1844, there are more than 500, besides 80 or 90 in Scotland. The accompanying map will indicate to thI eve the number and distribution of the Roman Cathollc chapels, colleges, and schools throughout the kingdomn. If the reader is struck with surprise at the covering of the land by Roman Catholic institutions, let him re- member, also, that some of them are very large and very expensive, requiring for their completion and decora- tion from 300,000 to 500,000. The sudden creation of so vast an amount of propert -, and the rapid acces- sion of so large a population, indicate great resources and great internal vigour in the Roman system. Al- though the Roman Catholic population is very far fiom being rich, yet there are some wealthy and noble among them; and every one, from the kitchen-maid to the duch- ess, from the peasant to the duke, feels it an imperative duty to contribute to the utmost for the reconquering of the world to the Roman Catholic communion. This is at present the most powerful impulse which the Catho- lic feels, and its effect is heightened by what he deems a sure prospect of success. The wealth of the Catho- lic world is at this hour at the service of the great cn- terprise she has set on foot, to recover all Christians again to her communion. The chief fields of her exer- tion are, the East, among the Greek, Armenian, and Nestorian Christians; and among the Protestants in Germany, Great Britian, and the United States. She not only proposes to bring the Christian population again within her pale, but also to enter into every open door, and preoccupy the ground among the heathen, and in all new countries. No sooner was the armistice concluded between En(gland and China, than forty miss sionaries were despatched thither; as soon as the French 270 -11,.1 1, ooor-044 4 4 Ow , i, - I I - , '-, """, I I'll I - - -11, - 1-1, "I ll-= 77 -1 I- ... 77; :: e-, t, 77 7 I I I kf :: , NlFIVYOlRK.H.'UIVRn kBRO'MFniAs1 t : ; I - This page in the original text is blank. MISSIONARY SPIRIT OF ROMANISM. established themselves in Algeria, it was erected into a bishopric, and missionaries sent to instruct the popu- lation. Before the bill for the occupation of Oregon is introduced into Congress, the territory is erected into a bishopric, and an active, intelligent prelate appointed to take possession. The missionary policy of the Roman Catholic Church has been developed of late to a degree unparalleled in her history. She may, indeed, with truth be called a Missionary Church. Her vast pop- ulation, of 160 millions, is, in reality, one enthusiastic missionary society, directed by a central power at Rome. And while Protestants have been biting and devouring one another, and thus wasting their strength and treas- ure, this Catholic Missionary Society has completed the adaptation of its machinery to its great enterprise; has distributed it over all the earth, and the astounding re- suIts of its perfect and powerful action have at length startled the Protestant world, and inspired it with ap prehension. The following statistics will show the missionary character of this church and the extension of her ma- chinery. It will be observed that England is regarded as a missionary field, and that there are six hundred and twenty-four missionaries at work amid a missionary population of one million. VOL. II.-A A 277 STATISTIC8. MISSIONS. Consisting of Vicariates and Prefectures, State. England Nassau . Low Countries . Gibraltar Sweden and Norway . Denmark Scotland Saxoriy Saxe-Weimar Wittemnberg Bukovina and Neoplanta Italo-Greeks Constantinople Turkish Dalmatia Moldavia and Wallachia Bosnia Bulgaria states. Turkey in Asia India west of the Ganges India beyond the Ganges China Abyssinia Bourbon, Island Cape of Good Hope Egypt Guinea Madagascar Morocco, Empire Mauritius Senegal Tripoli Tunis EUROPE. Vie. Apet. Mioatieta. 8 624 . 5 1,742 .1 10 . 1 2 . 1 7 . 3 86 1 . .3 _44 . .1 46 . .- .- 7 2 30 . 1 106 Pr2 12 29 2,816 ASIA. Vie. Apo. . 3 . 7 . 6 . 10 26 AFRICA. . I . 1 . 2 . I . 1_ . 1 5 1re t 1 Miht'rlas. 179 160 349 1 5 1 12 _ 4 - 50 _. 16 1 6 1 1 _ 6 1 2 1 4 1 6 7 112 Besides this, is the German Confederacy, in which are three Vicars Apostolic, and a Catholic population amounting to 2,068,968. 'opualina. 1,000,000 180,000 1,304,890 13,000 2,000 3,000 100,000 28,000 10,174 512,333 14,000 30,000 10,000 7,206 64,000 128,672 6,309 3,413,584 Popuiatton. 12,000 758,000 457,000 360,000 1,577,000 100.000 2,000 10,000 300 85,000 25,000 1,300 7.600 231,200 278 CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 279 AMERICA. State. Vic. Apost.Prtect.Mis'ries.Population. English Northern Possessions . 2 - - 73,000 French Possessicns . . .- 1 1,300 Texas, Republic . . . . 1 - 5 10,000 Antilles . . 3 - - 256,000 Hayti .1 - - 1,000,000 Guiana .2 - - 24000 French Guiana . - 1 - 16,000 9 2 5 1,380,300 OCEANICA. Batavia. . . . 1 - - 10,000 Western Ocean . 1 - - 50,000 2 0 0 60,000 SUMMARY OF MISSIONS AND THEIR POPULATION. Europe .29 - 2,816 3,413,584 Asia.26 - 339 1,577.000 Africa . . . . 5 7 112 231,200 America .9 2 - 1,380,300 Oceanica.2 - - 60,000 Total . . . . 71 9 3,267 5,662,084 The United States are also regarded as missionary ground, and the Roman Catholic Church is established in our midst. and is incorporating herself with our pop- ulation, as a great element of power. The extent of her operations in the United States may be inferred from the following summary, derived from the same authentic source: Catholic Statistics in the United Stutes. Diocesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Apostolic Vicariate. . . . . . . . . . . 1 Bishops . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Bishops elect. . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Number of Priests. . . . . . . . . . . 634 1' Churches . . . . . . . . . . 611 Other stations. . . . . . . . . . . . 461 Ecclesiastical Seminaries. . . . . . . . . 19 Clerical Students. . . . . . . . . . . 261 Literary Institutions for young men .16 Female Academies . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Elementary schools everywhere throughout most of the diocesses . Periodical publications .15 280 STATISTICS CIF 'TE ROMAN CATROLIC CHURCI. The preceding are the missionary statistics of the church, and show nearly four thousand missionaries acting upon a population of about seven millions. The following table will show the established population of the church, which may be called her home interest, and which. thoroughly imbued with the missionary spirit, furnishes the men, women (religious sisterhoods), and money for the great enterprise of conquering the world. General Statistics of the Roman Catholic Church. EUROPE. S'ales. Albania and Epirus Austria Baden Bavaria Belgium Cracovia France Greece Hanover Hesse, Grand-duchy Hohenzollern, Hechingen Hungary Ireland Ionian Islands . Islands of Archipelago Lombardy, Ven. Lucca, Duchy . Malta and Gozo Modena, Duchy Monaco, Principality Papal States Parma, Duchy Poland, Russian Portugal Prussia Rhenish Provinces Russian Empire San Marino, Republic Sardinia Servia Spain Arcbb'cs. BNh'c-. Di.c'.. . 1 I. s . .9 .9 .2 . I .15 . .1 .3 .4 .1 .2 .I .I . .2 .9 .2 . .1 . .4 . .2 .I .2 .7 .I4 . 1 . .8 I, 82 Carried forward . 24 6 5 1 65 3 2 25 23 1 1 17 2 59 4 8 17 6 4 5 34 51 307 33 8 6 I 80 4 2 28 27 - 2 1 19 1 1 4 68 6 9 21 8 5 7 41 1 59 "9 5'opula' ion. 88,788 15,555,916 852,824 2,977,675 4,217,750 142,202 31,000,000 22,900 216,758 203,632 21,000 7,578,122 7,500,000 2,630 160 4,645,594 168,198 109,000 378,000 6,500 2,732,436 476,187 3,887,313 3,549,420 5,612,556 5,590,000 7,600 4,650,350 10,000 12,286,941 114,490,432 u1 STATIST1CS. SWtat" Arl-b'. 1ikh'b. Di-,'. Brought forward. . 82 367 449 Switzerland . . . . . - 4 4 Two Sicilies . . . I 22 80 102 Tuscany . . . . . . 3 18 21 Prim. Archb. Armenians . . I - 1 Total in Europe . 108 469 A SIA. Armenians, Patriarchate of Chaldeans, 1' Greeks, Melch. or Cath. Patri; Maronites, Patriarchate of Syrians Asiatic Turkey India, Portuguese Persia Total in Asia Algiers Azores Canary Islands Cape Verde Islands Ceuta, Tangier, c. Congo Madeira St. Thomas Total in Africa English Possessions United States Mexico Central America West Indies 5 United States of the South Venezuela Bolivia Peru Chili Paraguay . Uruguay . . States of the Plata . Brazil Total in America 577 281 rOpUlstin. 14,490,452 882,854 8,156,310 1,430,785 27,560 124,993,961 Oriental Rite. .1 2 3 8,000 5 5 10 17,218 archate 7 5 12 50,0O0 . 8 12 20 500,000 . 2 4 6 30,000 Latin Rite. 1 4 5 11,400 . 1 1 2 538,000 . I-1 1 1,000 .25 34 59 1,155,618 AFRICA. . . - 1 1 75.000 . - 1 1 225,000 . - 1 1 208,000 .- 1 1 80,000 . . - 2 2 17,071 . .- 1 1 . . - 1 1 112,500 . - 1 1 41,000 _. . -9 9 758,571 NORTH AMERICA. . 1 5 6 750,000 .1 15 16 1,300,000 1 10 11 7,500,000 .1 4 5 1,900,000 . 1 2 3 1,020,862 OUTH AMERICA. . 1 8 9 828,000 . 1 2 3 945,348 . 1 2 3 1,300,000 .1 4 5 1,700,000 . 1 4 5 1,400,000 . - 1 1 250,000 _ - _ 250,000 . 1 3 4 675,000 . 1 7 8 5,000,000 . 12 67 7) 25,819,210 AA2 . . . OCE NICA. States. Archb'c.bish'a..DioeIs.Popula inn. Philippine Islands.1 3 4 3,000,000 Australia.1 2 3 50,000 Total in Oceanica. . 2 5 7 3,050,000 Total of Diocesses, with their Population. Diocee-. Popuahtion, Europe.577 124,9.13,961 Asia .59 1,155.618 Africa.9 758,751 America .79 25,819,210 Oceanica.7 3,050,000 Total .731 155,177,540 To this add the missionary population . . 5,662,084 Population of the Catholic world . . . 161,439,624 Here, then, we have a Roman Catholic population of one hundred and sixty millions. What is the force which Protestants can show in opposition Strictly speaking, not more than fifty millions. And if to the Protestant side we add the Greek, the Armenian, the Nestorian, and other Christian communions in the East which reject the supremacy of the pope, we could scarcely make up one hundred and twenty millions. But in the contest with Romanism, the Protestants can- not derive any effective aid from the Eastern Chris- tians; because, in the essential doctrines of faith which divide the Protestants and Roman Catholics, the Eastern churches are generally on the side of the Catholics. The main and almost only point in which they agree with Protestants is in the rejection of the Pope as the head of the Church on earth. The contest must lie, there- fore, between the fifty millions of Protestants, strictly so called, and the one hundred and sixty millions of Catho- lics. It is important! therefore, that the Protestant church- es should well understand the force and policy of the Roman Catholic Church, considered as an external in- stitution acting upon society. The force, amounting to 282 STATISMIS. !ISrORICAL SKETCH. 1742 missionaries, employed in the Low Countries, ought to attract attention. The ambition and licentiousness of the clergy, and the general corruption of the Church, had spread discon- tent throughout Europe, and prepared the way for the Reformation before the sixteenth century. So sudden and extensive was that great movement, that before the death of Luther all the North of Europe was completely reformed, and the Reformation established by law ; and in the South its principles had penetrated every prov- ince, and seemed on the point of completely triumphing The Roman hierarchy suddenly started from its dream of licentiousness and power; and commencing a reformation of morals in the Vatican, diffused it in- stantaneously through all ranks of the priesthood, from the College of Cardinals to the curate of the miserable hamlet in the unvisited dell of the mountains. Simulta- neously with this improvement of clerical morals was a revival of piety to some extent, and a zeal for religion unexampled in the history of the Church. By these exhibitions, showing herself worthy of help from her friends, she called upon Catholic princes to draw the sword in her defence, and the history of the thirty years' war on the Continent, and the long contest be- tween Philip of Spain and Elizabeth of England, attest how willingly they obeyed her voice. In the religious wars of three generations the true spirit of Protestant- isrn was almost extinguished. It became political, and, content with maintaining itself within its own state lim- its, ceased to be aggressive. It has made no acquisition of territory since the death of Luther. The buddings of the Reformation, in the states where it was not es- tablished or protected by law, were crushed by the Inquisition, as in Spain; by intrigue, murder, and war, 283 8HISTORICAL SKETCH. as in France; and by some one or more of these means in the south of Germany, in Hungary, and in Poland; all which countries had been Protestantized to a great extent, but were recovered again to the dominion of Rome. This was the relative position of the two great Christian parties at the peace of Westphalia. The fiery zeal for religion on the part of the states ceased when they saw themselves threatened by the rapid rise of the House of Austria. The principle of state com- binations was now political instead of religious; and the war between Protestants and Roman Catholics was henceforth to be a war of their respective opinions and moral influences. The perfect organization of the Ro- man Church, by which every member moves in obedi- ence to a common authority at Rome; the definiteness of her doctrine as ascertained by the Council of Trent; the impressiveness of the symbols by which those doc- trines are exhibited to the senses and imagination of the people; the air of divinity with which her antiquity, reaching back into the twilight of Christian history, in- vests her orders and service; her connexion with the chivalrous and saintly history of the world, and with the fine arts, have heretofore sustained her. She has never lost in conflict, except when taken by surprise, having laid aside her armour. And when menaced, the facility with which she has resumed it, and the en- ergy with which she has used it, indicate the vitality within her. She has been twice surprised and deeply wounded. First, by Luther and his coadjutors; and again, by the spirit of infidelity and Republicanism, which is repre- sented in Europe by the French Revolution. We have seen how far and how rapidly she recovered fi-om the first: if we will open our eyes, we may see how rapid- 284 POWER OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 285 ly she is recovering from the second. Grown wvise by past experience, she is aiming to perpetuate her renew- ed youth, and forever hereafter prevent surprise, and render herself secure against every assault. I am aware that Protestants have been accustomed to consider the Roman Catholic Church as superannua- ted; as beneath the contempt of the liberally educated; as vanishing before the advancing knowledge of the age. Never have they committed a more fatal mis- take ; a mistake which has led them to misunderstand her true power, and to choose improperly their own measures of attack and defence. The returning sense of religion in the Catholic coun- tries of Europe. notwithstanding the general diffusion of knowledge, does not take the direction of Protestant- ism, but of Roman Catholicism; and the settled policy of the European States, since 1815, is to prevent the spread of liberal principles; and hence Roman Cathol- icism revives under the influence of political sympathy: for the history of the world and the nature of the case attest the truth of the maxim, " No bishop, no king,;" that a religious hierarchy is incompatible with popular liberty, and never prevails without being used as an in- strument of government by the State. I'rotestantism is the symbol of individual liberty, intellectual, political, and religious: Roman Catholicism is the symbol of subjection, more or less, in all these respects. But the essential power of the Roman Catholic Church is within herself. Its chief elements have al- icady been indicated. They influence her entire pop- ul:ution of one hundred and sixty millions, under the di- rection of one common head, the Pope, by means of about eight hundred bishops and apostolic vicars, who have the government of the countless number of priests, ELEMENTS OF POWER. missionaries, and monastic orders, both male and female, dispersed through all the earth, and occupying the most favourable positions for action. Attachment to their church, enthusiasm in their cause, the magnitude of the conquest proposed to themselves; the persuasion that success is at hand; freedom from the domestic cares, by reason of celibacy; their vows of obedience to their superiors-all contribute to promptitude and energy of action. Such is the extent and variety of their opera- tions, that they afford room for the employment of every order of talent, and every eccentricity of disposition. The excess of population in the Old World; the difficulty of marrying with advantage in many instances, and the thousand private disappointments and griefs, contribute largely to fill the ranks of the clergy, and to people the monasteries and nunneries. The doctrine of merit in works disposes to the most dangerous and difficult en- terprises; and the more dangerous and difficult, the more meritorious. No clime is so unpropitious, no work so revolting, no undertaking so hazardous, as to deter either men or women, if the voice of the church call them to action or endurance. Their state of cel- ibacy reduces their expenses to a point where Protest- ant action could not be sustained. They ask but food and raiment, and these often of the plainest kind, and are therewith content. Formerly, many ecclesiastical per- sons in the Romish communion, from the Pope down to the humble curate, were anxious to amass wealth for personal indulgence, or for the benefit of their relations; but, under the new impulse, abstemious habits prevail to a great extent, and revenues arising are not now wasted on nepotism, but appropriated to the great missionary cause of the church. Her policy and resources enable her to prepare per- 286 ENTHUSIASM. sons to serve in every place where her interests or the interests of humanity may demand. She has men who may sit down in the cabinet and counsel kings; who may stand at the head of universities and direct the education of a nation; and others whose enthusiasm and devotion make them ready to tent under the burn- ing sun of the tropics, or rest in the wigwam of the In- dian; while her Sisters of Charity are ready to stand by the beds of the wretched in the fever or the cholera hospitals, and patiently administer to their wants. The brothers of Jesus (the Jesuits) are a flying artillery, ever ready for any service to be accomplished by any means. These, together with the other monastic orders and the various sisterhoods, are charged with obtaining the education of the world ; and their success, evenf amid Protestant populations, is astonishing. CVhile the ecclesiastical ranks are thus enthusiastic and active, the lay population are constant and liberal in their contributions to support the cause. The Ro- man Catholics are truer to their principles than the Protestants, because they believe there is no salvation out of their communion; while Protestants admit that there are many true Christians in the Catholic Church. Hence the Catholic is bound in conscience to direct all his conduct and to cast his vote for the honour of his church. A Catholic would prefer his child should not know the alphabet rather than be educated under the influence of Protestantism; but a Protestant will send his sons and daughters to Catholic schools, when the chances are many that they will forsake the religion of their pa- rents, because he is willing to run the risk of his chil- dren becoming Catholics, provided they get a good edu- cation. Let man or woman marry a Catholic, and the Catholic consort cannot rest in conscience until his or 287 288 ENTHUSIASM. her companion is safe in the church. From the very fiture of the case, the Catholic is more attached to his fftitlt than the Protestant, for he believes it essential to his salvation and the salvation of his friends. When did a Catholic prince become Protestant through po- litical interests Yet the great Henry of France re- nounced his Protestantism for a throne, and even the Elector of Saxony faltered in the Protestant cause when political considerations came in his way; and the Protestant Prince Maurice turned traitor to the Protestant league of Smalcalde, and played into the hands of Charles V., in hopes of obtaining the territory of his Protestant kinsinan. On the other hand, there are numerous instances of Catholic princes deliberately putting their thrones to jeopardy for the sake of their religion. Nay, instances are not wanting of Catholic Dr. Dixon, speaking of the increase of Roman Catholicism in the Brit- ish dominions, says, -The North American Colonies, the West India Isl- ands, the Cape of Good Hope, the Continent of India, and Australia, are be- ilg regularly organized as popish sees, and are filling with bishops and priests. These establishments are, in part, supplied at the nation's expense. The public money is now employed to equip and send out bishops and priests, and partially to maintain them, in the distant colonies of the Empire. flow this can be consistently done, it is difficult to divine. By what right any government can apply the public money, without act of Parliament, to set up a hierarchy which is avowe(liy alien to the religion and constitution of the country, must be determined by a more learned authority. The fact, how- ever, is so; and those Protestant missionary societies which have, for a long series of years, been toiling in these distant regions, to sow the seed of evan- gelical truth, to plant in these infant nations the principles of British Chris- tianity, and attach them to the parent state by the ties of a common religion, now suddenly find themselves confronted atid opposed by regular establish- snents of popish priests, PAID, PATRONISED, AND PUBLICLY RECOMIENIEED By -ritE GOVERNMENT. Without debate, or even any kind of notice bein.g taken of the matter in the British Parliament, or the least knowledge of wheat was going on by the people of this country, we are suddenly startled by the fact that, while Protestants were asleep or wrangling, the popish church, with silent and stealthy industry, has established her influence and authority in all the colonies of the Empire." princes renouncing their crowns because they could not \Near them as Catholics. While there is this steadiness in the faith and purpose of the Roman Catholic community, there is much world- ly wisdom and flexibility displayed in their modes of exhibiting their faith. Their exposition of doctrine and their forms of worship are judiciously adapted to the different ranks of society. At Prague, I saw a funeral procession pass before our hotel, attended by long lines of priests in their robes, and each carryvrig a lighted taper. Hundreds of boys and citizens carried them also. In the interior towns of Italy, over the doors of many churches, I read, "' In- dulgentia plenaria quotidiana perpetua." No such ad- vertisement as this could be found in the principal churches in Rome, if, indeed, in Rome at all. On Con- ception Day I was in Rome, and on accidentally going to the Capitol at three o'clock, found a vast concourse of the common people, but few of the gentry there. I soon perceived that some popular display was to take place. Military bands and troops in uniform were seen amid the vast crowds. Standards were displayed, the most eminent of which bore a picture of the Virgin. Presently the crowd opened to make way for the pro- cession, which began to issue from the Church of Ara- celi (built on the site of the temple of Jupiter Capitoli- nus), accompanied by hundreds of boils dressed in white, bearing lighted tapers, and followed by sixteen strong men in blue blouses, bearing on poles a gilded canopy, under which was a figure of the Virgin, large as life, in the act of blessing the people. The whole pageant moved to the Capitol Square, and descended the Clivus Capitolinus towards the Campus Martius, amid the ring- ing of bells, the prostration of the people, and clouds of VOL. II.-B n 289 CEREMONIES. incense. It made the circuit of the city in the same manner, returned to the east side of the Capitol, and en- tered the ancient Forum, which shook under the heavy tread of the long double lines of priests and of the populace. It then ascended by the Via Sacra under the lone columns of Jupiter Tonans, treading on the very stones which had been pressed by the prancing horses of the triumphing Czesars, and disbanded at the door of the church, where the Virgin was received again amid inspiring music. As Christmas morning dawned on Naples, I was awaked from my slumbers, and heard the measured chant of a company of priests, amid the discharge of rockets and the shouts of the multitude. I looked out of the window and saw hundreds of them clad in white, each with a torch, and surrounding a light silk canopy, under which were a cradle, the child, and the Virgin. I sallied forth, joined the crowd, and entered the church with the procession. It looked much more like an em- porium of fashion than the house of God. The richness and brilliancy of the Virgin's dress and ornaments; of the pavilion over the cradle and child; and of the side chapels, fitted up like boudoirs, exceeded all I had ima- gined on such occasions. On another evening I visited one of the churches, which was literally hung all round in festoons of vari- ous-coloured silk with gilded fringes and gold spangles. The altar was loaded with huge bouquets of flowers, made of silver-gilt paper, and high above it, in the al- coved ceiling, were the Virgin and child, half concealed in flowers. One hundred and fifty-four tapers burned upon the altar, and twice that number in the other parts of the church, which was crowded to sufiocation. The priest elevated the host; the multitude bowed and wor- 290 PAGEANTS.' POLICY OF ROMANISM. shipped, while a hundred guns were discharged, in rapid succession, in the street immediately before the church; the discharges becoming slower as the train advanced, but increasing in loudness until the final grand explo- sion as the priest returned the host to the tabernacle on the altar, when the people rose and departed. This is the exhibition of Catholicism to the degraded masses in Catholic countries, to the great grief of the enlightened and independent of mind; and which an in- telligent professional gentleman in Naples, in conversa- tion with me, called " our pagan worship." We Prot- estants generally rail at this, and denounce it. Yet we cannot deny bitt that Roman Catholicism does reach and influence these dregs of society, so that they are better with it than without it. But what is the influence of Protestants over the vile populations that burrow in their cities and towns What does it do for the 60,000 in Liverpool who never enter a church, and the three times that number in London, with a fair proportion in Manchester, and in our own great cities These are questions which Protestants ought to be able to answer to their credit. On the other hand, Roman Catholicism, in the midst of Protestant populations, and when addressing itself to intelligent persons, shows none of these superstitions. It exhibits itself as a plausible, if not a reasonable sys- tem. Thus it appears to us in America; thus it ap- pears in England, in Prussia, and, to a great extent, in France and Ireland. We have seen how it appears in truly Catholic countries. With these views of the power and progress of Ro- man Catholicism, it remains to inquire, What is the duty of Protestants The first thing to be done is to waive the differences among themselves in inattews of opinion and of church government. In the fundamental articles .291 DUTY OF PROTESTANTS. of faith the agreement is sufficient for common cause. Variety in matters of opinion and in church govern- ment is not a disadvantage, if warm, active brotherly love abound among us all. We have quarrelled long enough. Our bickerings should be laid aside, and we should present one unbroken front of Protestantism to the advancing legions of the Roman Catholic Church. which really seems to be renewed in youth, and is in- spired with an energy and flushed with a hope of suc- cess unknown to her in past ages. Her spirit, her con- stitution, her history require the bondage of the mind in matters of religion, and secure the submission of the many to the authority of the few. Protestantism rep- resents freedom and independence of mind in matters of religion as well as in civil and political affairs, and is the basis of free government. Catholicism is a sacra- mental religion; the religion of the priesthood: Prot- estantism is the religion of faith ; the religion of the in- dividual. According to Catholicism, there can be no communion with God except through the intervention of the priest: Protestantism teaches each man for him- self to draw near to God and make known his requests in prayer, without the intervention or office of any mor- tal man between him and his Maker. The happiness and liberty of the world stand or fall as the one or the other of these religious systems shall attain dominion. Catholics have buried all their differences; have re- newed their vows of fidelity to their church; have re- formed their manners and morals to a great extent- and have devoted their worldly substance to their cause; and shall not Protestants show equal charity and wisdom among themselves; equal zeal; equal lib- erality Next to this unity in heart and action among Protest- ants, the most important measure is, the sound religious 292 DUTY OF IMETHODISTS. education of the whole Protestant population. The pe- culiar doctrines and ceremonies of Roman Catholicism give it dominion over the conscience and the imagina- tion; by its admirable and energetic system of education in close connexion with the Church, it is seeking do- mninion over the mind. If it succeed, it will have takln possession of the fortress of Protestantism, which dares not bind the conscience or captivate the imagination, but rests solely on the conviction of the understand- ing, and the faith founded therein. If we do not retain possession of the education of the youth of our country, we shall be compelled to strike our colours at a day much less distant than the most apprehensive have ima- gined. The whole battle of the Reformation is to-be fought over again; not with force of arms, but with moral power. Protestantism has depended too much upon its internal spiritual power. This is great; but to this must be added all other moral means, and fore- most among these is the thorough religious education of the youth, in conjunction with their literary, scientific, and common education. Religious instruction must be a prominent feature in the university, the college, the academy, and the common school. To the religious community to which I have the privilege of belonging, I am bound to say, the number of our people, the uni- formity of our faith and government, and our diffusion throughout the land, call upon the whole Church, through her General Conference, to devise a complete system of education, under her patronage and inspec- tion, which shall meet, not only the wants of her own people, but the great exigency of the renewed conflict between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. which is to put in requisition the energies of Europe and America for the next half century. B B 2 293 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. CHAPTER XXIII. ENGLAND AND AMERICA. I WAS gratified to find, in al my intercourse with Englishmen, kind feelings towards my native country freely expressed. Though the tone of the public jour- nals and of party pamphlet writers has been anything but friendly for several years past, I believe that all right-minded men in England deprecate hostile feelings towards the United States, not merely on grounds of political expediency, but from a real and earnest desire for the welfare of this country. Neither in England nor America can journalists be considered fair expo- nents of the true state of public opinion. So excessive is the strength of party spirit in both countries, that, in general, few newspapers or journals can be believed irn- plicitly, in any assertions with reference to points that involve party considerations, or that may be used in party conflicts. Whatever ebullitions of war spirit may be found in newspapers on either side of the wa- ter, I am satisfied that the mass of the people in both countries desire not merely to preserve peace, but to cherish a closer and more kindly feeling than ever to- wards each other. Certainly such ought to be the state of things. The two greatest nations on earth, mother and daughter, with a common language, common laws, the same lit- erature, the same habits, the same religion-why should these nations, of all others, indulge in feelings of hostil- ity Dependant on each other in many respects, con- 2934 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. nected by a great and growing trade, why should they be ready, at the slightest word, to talk of strife But while I admit freely that I found in all compa- nies the kindliest feelings towards America, I found them generally coupled with prejudices and erroneous views that went far to counteract them, and will cer- tainly, if not arrested, in the end effectually destroy them. The reason of all this is sufficiently obvious. Towards Americans themselves, as the sons of Old England, as Protestant Christians, and, what perhaps is not the least consideration, as the most extensive pur- chasers of British goods, the English people desire to feel kindly. But the government and institutions of America are viewed with very different feelings by all but the Liberal party in England. They know well that the party of thre people throughout Europe has started into being since the American Revolution, as its acknowledged fruit; that the experiment of Repub- licanism in America has not been made for America alone; that the suffering millions of the Old World have heard, or will in the course of time hear, that freedom is possible, and can be made to coexist with good gov- ernment. They know well that all the abuses and op- pressions of European governments will be set forth in contrast with the benign institutions of the United States with terrible effect. They do not fear the spirit of propagandism from America-we are too remote for that-but the example of successful Republicanism. After spending " eight hundred millions in resisting Re- publicanism in Europe," the Tory party of England do not intend that the peaceful operation of the great prin- ciples of freedom in America, the admirable develop- ment of the best powers of the Anglo-Saxon race under a government of the people, and the rapid advance- 295 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. ment of the American nation in wealth, intelligence, and cultivation, shall be allowed to produce their legit- imate effects upon the popular mind of Europe. Hence, for a number of years past, they have followed a reg- ular system of misrepresentation and falsehood in re- gard to the working of the political institutions of Amer- ica. What is good among us has been overlooked or denied; what is evil has been exaggerated. Our social defects-the natural consequences of the physical con- ditions under which society exists among us-have been charged upon our political system. Evils which no human government ever did prevent or ever can prevent, and which exist in tenfold force and extent in the Old World, are charged upon America as peculiarly hers, and as the legitimate fruit of her institutions. But besides all this, falsehoods of the most vile and absurd character are continually concocted in England, circu- lated through the island, and spread over the Continent. I might cite extracts in abundance from English news- papers in proof of this statement. But if newspapers alone were guilty of this crying sin of habitually slandering a great nation, it would be well: men, generally, have learned how much credit is to be given to party newspapers, and the evil which they do is confined to narrow and temporary limits. But the higher English journals, the magazines and re- views, exhibit the very worst of this malignant spirit. That even these should make mistakes in regard to foreign subjects is natural enough, especially when we consider through what a medium of pride and prejudice such subjects are viewed in England; but it is not of mistakes that I complain. Let me give a specimen or two. I Night take up the London Quarterly or the Foreign Quarterly at random, and hardly fail to find 296 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. slender enough. Take the following passage from an article in the former journal on Railroads in Ireland: " Although men of property and intelligence in the great cities of the United States do not dare openly to utter a word of complaint against their tyrannical mas- ters, the people, in talking of the said 'people' they do not hesitate in private to acknowledge to any intelligent English traveller that they are afraid, publicly, either to write their sentiments or to speak their mind; (!) that their property is insecure ; (!) that they cannot luxuri- ously spend it as they like. or bequeath it in any way contrary to the mode approved of by the people; (!) for though their bequest might be perfectly legal, yet that the jury would be sure to overrule it, as has been customary in such cases, by a verdict of 'insanity.' Suffering under this tyranny, it is quite easy to perceive that they look with secret admiration and envy on those noble British institutions (! !) which openly protect the property of the few from the Briarean fingers of the many. They see that under this system no man in England is afraid to write or speak his mind; that prop- erty may be spent or bequeathed as the owner chooses; that neither the British judge nor the British jury fear anything but the guilt of injustice; that, strange to sav, the bowie-knife is unknown throughout the British Em- pire," c., c. These are specimens of the " proofs" given by this sapient reviewer of " the fatal results of Democracy, as they are already staringly exemplified in the United States ;" and that, too, oddly enough, one would think, in an article on " Railways in Ireland." But the reader who is familiar with Tory journals or newspapers will not be surprised at this, for the same kind of slang is in- troduced into articles on all conceivable subjects: let 297 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. the writer begin on almost any topic, it is soon " Mon- sieur Tonson come again ;" and America must be abu- sed. As to the assertions quoted from the Railway re- viewer, they are every one-so far as they relate to America-false and calumnious. Nowhere, in the civ- ilized world, is there more complete freedom of speech and of the press than in the.free States of the American Union; nowhere is property more secure; nowhere can a man dispose of his property more freely at his pleas- ure; nowhere can a man bequeath it with such per- fect license. On the points above cited, take Great Britain and Ireland together, and there is no comparison between them and the United States. Take another specimen from the infamous article in the Foreign Quarterly for January, 1844, on the " Poets of America." "America has never produiced states- men, but teems with politicians. Hence the judges on the bench constantly give way to popular clamour, and law itself is abrogated by the lawmakers, and openly violated by its functionaries. Hence the total abnegation of all dignity, earnestness, truth, consisten- cv, and courage, in the administration of local affairs. Hence the ascendency of Lynch-law over state law; hence assassination in the daylight in the thronged streets; hence impunity to crime, backed by popular fury; hence the wild justice of revenge bearding the justice of the judicature in its own courts; hence the savage bowie-knife glittering in the hand of the mur- derer on the floor of Coungress; and hence that in- timidation from without, which makes legislation it- self a farce; and which, trampling upon all known prin- ciples of human rights, has prohibited the discussion of slavery in the chambers, where discussion, to be of any value at all, ought to be free and above suspicion." 298 ENGLAND A.\ND AMERICA.29 " The ablest men in America have preserved their own equivocal and insecure position by a servile obedience to the masses. No man- in America stands clear of this rotteni despotism. No man dare assert his own inde- pendence, apart from the aggregate independence of the people. He has no liberty but theirs. So thor- oughly and universally is this acknowledged, so impli- citly is it submitted to, that it has long ceased to excite observation." My readers will have seen before this time the chap- ter on America in Alison's History of Europe. In this elaborate work, the labour of twenty-five years, the writer has contrived to convey to posterity (if his book ever reaches posterity) a series of the most atrocious slanders against a whole people that ever were per- petrated. According to Mr. Alison, in the American States, "it is generally made an indispensable pledge, with every representative on the popular side, that he is to support the system of 'repudiation,' and relieve the people of the disagreeable burden of paying their debts ;" "religion has become the mere re-echo of pub- lic opinion;" "original thought, independence of char- acter. nervous opinion, are unknown ;" "there is, in op- position to the will or passions of the majority, no se- curity for life or property;" "murders and assassina- tions in open day are not unfrequent among the mem- bers of Congress themselves ;" "all the state judges, from the highest to the lowest, are elected by the peo- ple, and are liable to be displaced by them ;" and, final- lv, "the atrocities of the French Revolution, cruel and heart-rending as they were, have been exceeded on the other side of the Atlantic ; for there the terrible spec- tacle has been frequently exhibited of late years, of per- sons obnoxious to the majority being publicly burned 299 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. alive by tne people, and to render the torment more prolonged and excruciating, over a fire purposely kin- dled of green wood." It is enough to say of these statements, that every one of them, fi-om beginning to end, is an unqualified falsehood; and there are many more such in Mr. Alison's bock. Notwithstanding, it cannot be possible hut thlt they will do a great deal to prejudice the minds of mul- titudes in England, who would have passed by the statements of newspapers and reviews with inattention, or even disgust. It will be seen from the extracts above given, that English writers dwell with frequency upon the absence of free thought in America. It is a favourite notion now in England, that no American can speak his mind on any topic, unless his opinion happens to coincide with that of the majority. I believe De Tocqueville first gave cur- rency to this notion, and it has been caught up with ea- gerness by English writers on America. It would be easy to show from De Tocqueville's own book that his statements are generally hypothetical, and that he brings few or no facts to support them. His theory was, that in a Democratic government there can be no freedom of opinion; and it was an easy step from that to say that in the United States there is no freedom of opinion. But let the notion have originated where it may, it is totally destitute of foundation. As I have said before, nowhere in the world is there greater freedom of speech and of the press than in America. A man may write what he pleases and speak what he pleases, subject only to the just restrictions of law. " But," say these writers, " if a man advocate opinions unpalatable to the What is here said is predicated of the European editions, for circulation in Europe. 300 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. majority, he will be proscribed and driven from public life." This is true enough, and can it be otherwise Is it not so in England Will a large Tory landholder vote fbr Mr. Cobden or Mr. Bright Do the generous Whigs of England elect Tory members Was such an absurdity ever heard of as that men should be called to support and elevate men whose political opinions they believe to be directly subversive of their best interests This is the only proscription for opinion's sake known in America-that men will not support or countenance those men in public life whose sentiments they disap- prove. By what code of morality they can be bound to do otherwise I cannot imagine. The only exception that can be fairly adduced from the general remark made above in regard to freedom of speech in America, is the case of the discussion of slavery in some of the slave states. I freely admit that in some of those states the fundamental principles of American liberty have been violated; that freedom of speech has been suppressed, the press muzzled, and men proscribed, and even punished, for opinion's sake. I have no excuse to offer for these atrocities; but I ear- nestly disclaim, on the part of the majority of the states and people of the Union, all sympathy with the doc- trines or the practice of those who thus violate the Con- stitution of the country. Their misconduct is no more chargeable upon the whole country than the excesses of Roman Catholics in Tipperary are chargeable upon the British nation. It would be as just to say that there is no firecdom of opinion in Great Britain because Prot- estants cannot say what they will against Romanism in some parts of Ireland, as to say that there is no free- dom of opinion in America because Abolitionists cannot VOL. I1.-C C 301 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. . publish what they will against slavery in two or three of the American states. English writers are fond of saying that there is no jus- tice to be had in America. I am well assured that the ad- ministration of the laws is as pure and perfect in Amer- ica as it is in England, nay, even more so. I believe, notwithstanding, that the justice of the English courts is nearly unimpeachable; yet it would not be difficult. after the manner of English tourists, to make out a strong case against them. I find the following para- graph in a London paper of August, 1842: "The following shows how much may be done by interest, and perhaps something else: Thomas Edward Johnson, Esq., who, on the 15th ult., was found guilty and sentenced to three months' imprisonment for a gross assault on Amelia Browning, the housemaid in the es- tablishment, No. 131 Piccadilly, where he occupied apartments, obtained a commutation of his sentence a very few days afterward, upon the petition of his broth- er, and the payment of the nominal fine of pound;30. No cormunication was first made with the prosecutrix, who had been obliged to leave a good place in order to-preserYe her virtue, and was at the expense of some pounds in priosecuting her would-be seducer; and when her respectable solicitors, Messrs. Baddeley, of Lemon- street, represented the facts to Sir James Graham, the secretary of state for the home department, and sug- gested that the least recompense the poor girl could now receive, since she had got another place, and the offender-was at large, was the making of the fine appli- cable to the payment of her expenses, the trite answer was returned, under the signature of H. Manners Sut- ton, that the request could not be complied with." I might multiply such quotations, and then proceed 302 ENGLAND AND) AMERICA. to build upon them a charge against the purity of the British judges; and in so doing, I should follow precise- ly the method pursued by British tourists, journalists, and historians to blacken the character of the United States. In another paper of the same year occurs the follow- ing statement: "Upward of six thousand tradesmen are said to have been convicted, during the past four years, of fraudu- lently using short weights and measures!" How shocking must be the moral condition of a peo- ple of whollm such a story can be told! In the matter of corruption and bribery in elections, I believe our English friends would hardly be willing to institute a comparison with us. According to their own showing, there is no restraint upon bribery, except the fear of being found guilty. The mere fact of corrup- tion having been occasionally resorted to, would not be so bad ; not only is the practice almost universal. but, what is far worse, it finds no correction in public opin- ion. I myself heard a debate in the House of Commons in regard to a case of bribery, and there was no attempt to deny the offence; the only question between the par- ties, as one of the speakers himself remarked, was, which of them was most deeply involved in the guilt. The whole tone of the debate showed that the matter was made light of by all parties. That this is the real state of public feeling on this subject in England, will be farther shown by the following passage from the Lon- don Watchman of August 10th, 1842. A new bill in regard to bribery had just been introduced into the House, and on it the editor remarks: "However stringent and penal the law on the sub- ject may be, we anticipate little benefit to the country 303 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. at large, till there be, especially among public men, a more correct feeling in regard to the practice. Were it considered to be, as it really is, both dishonourable and immoral, it would neither be lightly imputed, nor pertinaciously defended, as party purposes may seem to require. As it is, if by its imputation an opponent may be unseated, there seems to be no objection to charge it on the most insignificant grounds; as, on the other hand, if a friend is tp be kept in his place, the plainest evidence is either to be overlooked altogether, or some method is found of calling the practice by an- other name, and then, pronouncing the charge of bri- bery, under that term, to be not pioved. We do not re- fer to such supposed instances for the purpose of illus- trating the strength of party feeling, but for showing the real nature of the opinion which is entertained con- cerning bribery. Provided detection can be avoided, there seems to be, strange as the language may appear, no objection to engage in it, on the part of mcn gen- erally honourable in their feelings, and who desire to maintain a spotless character among their associates. We fear there are only too many, of all parties, and among all classes, who look upon bribery only as an of- fence in the eye of the law. ' Your vote is your own, sell it to me,' says the man who wishes in this way to secure his object. 'M y vote is my own; I will get as much for it as I can,' says the voter, who sees no evil in accepting money for his vote." Of all the charges which British writers have brought against the American Congress, there is none so weigh- ty as this. What a picture, indeed, is here presented of the members of the British Legislature-buying up their free and intelligent constituencies ! The system of falsehood pursued in regard to Ainer- 304 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. lean affairs for some years past, then, by English Tory writers of all classes, has had its effect upon the minds of the people; and although they are disposed to be friendly to America, they are generally full of ignorance. and prejudice as to the character and working of her institutions. I found, commonly, in private society, that these prejudices disappeared before a clear statement of the truth; and there were but few of the topics gener- ally selected for abuse of Americans that I could not dispose of readily. But there were one or two, the mention of which always caused me to hang my head with shame. Many a time have I had to blush for my- self as a citizen of Pennsylvania, when the failure of the state to pay the interest of her debt was alluded to in company. True, I had no difficulty in vindicating my fellow-citizens, and the state authorities, from the dis- grace of " repudiation." I could fearlessly assert that the people of Pennsylvania had no disposition to shrink from their responsibilities; I could promise, without hesitancy, that every dollar, both of principal and in- terest, would finally be paid; but then, there was still the decisive fact that the interest was not paid, while I could not venture to plead even inability as an ex- cuse. I am well assured that if the state officers and Legislature of Pennsylvania had ever been condemned to feel, as I have felt, the deep dishonour which their neglect to keep the faith of the state unsullied, has fixed upon every man who bears the name of Pennsylvanian in the eyes of all men, of all classes, in every country in Europe, they would not suffer the national disgrace to remain another day... I could not deny the ability of the state to meet the interest upon her debt punctually; and there was nothing left but to admit either the inca- pacity or the want of firmness in our state government; C, c 2 305 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. and to admit either was to give a handle to every op- ponent of Republican institutions, which he would not fail to use most industriously. The " repudiation" of Mississippi, and the temporary failure of the other de- linquent states, has been a Godsend to all the upholders of arbitrary power in Europe. And many of them pro- claim our disgrace with a savage exultation, as if re- joicing in it. In years past, they have been compelled to resort to their invention for both facts and arguments against American Republicanism; but here are both ready made to their hands, far more potent than anv- thing they had dreamed of-a state dishonour that cannot be palliated-a state crime, without even the poor excuse of expediency-a state blunder so gross as to make Re- publicanism and stupidity, in the estimation of Europe- ans. synonymous words. In all former conflicts, the Liberal party in Europe have stood manfully in our de- fence; but now their mouths are stopped. I am clear- ly of opinion that the cause of liberal opinions in Eu- rope has been put back twenty years, if not fifty, by the non-payment of the debts of the defaulting American states. The whole country suffers for the guilt of the few. It is not Pennsylvania alone that is disgraced, but the United States of America. Another topic frequently came up in conversation while I was in England, almost equally painful. The gradual deterioration of manners in the American Con- gress is notorious, not only in America, but in Europe. True, the accounts given in England are generally ex- aggerated and often false, but yet there remains enough of the evil to make an American abroad ashamed of the National Legislature. I could, indeed, tell my friends in England who spoke of " bowie knives flashing in the halls of Congress," and "members assassinating each 306 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. other in open day," that these outrages existed only in the feverish imaginations of London penny-a-liners and Quarterly Reviewers; but I had at the same time to con- fess that the Chamber of Representatives had been fre- quently desecrated by language unworthy of Billings- gate, and even, in one or two instances, by personal rencounters between men of unbridled passions; that the tone of good-breeding and decorum that formerly char- acterized the House had gone, and there had risen up in place of it a spirit of blustering bravado, of rudeness and vulgarity, that made the atmosphere of the House often uncomfortable for men of decent manners. All this I had to admit; and in honesty I here record it. So long as these things are so, Englishmen may say almost what they please of us, and Europe will believe them. The American Senate, I am proud to say, still retains its character as a dignified and honourable body of legislators. In point of decency, propriety, and good breeding, it falls in no respect below the English House of Lords; and, in point of talent, it has generally been far superior; certainly it was so in the palmy days of the Clays, the Calhouns, the Websters, and the Haynes. Indeed, scenes occur in the House of Lords, the like of which has never been known, so far as I have heard, in the American Senate. On a very late occasion Lord Brougham gave Lord Campbell the lie, almost directly. The same thing occurred not long ago in the House, when no less a personage than Sir Robert Peel honoured Mr. Cobden, the corn-law leaguer, with a like compliment. In many respects the House of Commons shows more ill-breedingr than would be tol- erated in our House of Representatives, e. g., in hissing, coug-hingc, scraping, irnitatvons of animals, c. ; but in- 307 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. suiting language, and still more, indecorous conduct, are rarely known. I trust that the public indignation which has been so freely expressed throughout the Uni- ted States in regard to the breaches of decorum in the House of Representatives at Washington, will have due effect there, and that we have seen the last of the dis- graceful occurrences to which I have referred. Though the acts of lawless violence that are occa- sionally perpetrated in our Southern and Western re- gions cannot justly be charged upon the whole commu- nity, I had frequent occasion, while abrcad, to meet the charge that human life is not guarded in America as in Europe. I met it, generally with success, by stating that these occurrences mostly take place in the newly- settled districts of the country, where the laws have not had time to be incorporated with the habits of the peo- ple; where, indeed, owing to the great extent of coun- try over which a small population is scattered, laws can hardly be administered in form at all; and where every man has grown up in habits of self-government and self- defence. I stated also, with confidence, that in the ma- jority of the states of the American Union life and property are as secure as in any country in Europe, and in some of them far more so. It would be as un- just to say that in the British Empire no man can rent land over another without risking his life, because " in- truders" are butchered in some counties of Ireland, as to say that life and property are insecure in America be- cause of the lawless outrages committed in some semi- civilized portions of her territory. But our British friends, innocent of ali knowledge of American geogra- phy, make no difference between Arkansas and Massa- clhsetts, Io-va and Pennsylvania. A murder is com- mitted at the distance of fifteen hundred or two thou- 308 EN'GLAND AND AMERICA. sand miles from Philadelphia, and they imagine at once that the streets of the Quaker city are thronged with. savages, and that bowie-knives are as common there as walking-sticks in Regent-street. As well might the po- lice of London be held responsible for the misdemean- ours of Van Diemen's Land. It must not be supposed that I offer any apology for the crimes to which I have referred. The inhabitants of those states in which barbarous duels, street fights, bowie-knife rencounters, and all forms of individual ven- geance are allowed, must consent to be regarded as only half-civilized until their laws are better enforced. Man- kind will not give them credit for virtue or intelligence so long as these brutal evidences of the prevalence of evil passions are allowed to attest their infamy. That there are many good men in those sections of the coun- try who mourn over these outrages, I am well assured; and I cannot but urge them to exert all their energies, as good citizens and Christians, to bring about a better state of society. American slavery was, of course, a frequent topic of discussion among our transatlantic friends. Anti-sla- very spirit is thoroughly diffused among the English peo- ple; it has grown up to be an earnest conviction of the whole nation; and they are so elated with the recent abolition of slavery in the British West Indies. that they can hardly look with patience upon any system that holds men in involuntary bondage, however mild and patriarchal may be its character. There is much ig- norance among them as to the true character of Ameri- can slavery; a number of the most extravagant and fanatical of our anti-slavery lecturers have been among them, and fed the public appetite for horrors even to sa- tiety. I endeavoured always, without in the slightest S90 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. degree attempting to hide or palliate the real evils of slavery, to remove the false impressions which these itinerant slanderers of their own country had succeeded in making. I presented, too, what I believed to be the real state of feeling of a vast majority of the citizens of the United States-their settled conviction of the evil of slavery; their unfeigned regret that it had been fasten- ed upon us by our British ancestors; and their earnest anxiety for its abolition. Born in a slave state myself, I spoke with knowledge and with confidence of the anti- slavery feeling that pervades a large class of the popu- lation, even in those states where slavery exists by law; and showed that measures had been taken years ago, which would-had they not been arrested by the ultra- abolitionists-in all probability have led to the abolition of slavery in several of these states before this time. I found it necessary, also, to explain the relation of our state governments to the General Government, and the constitutional impossibility of any interference on the part of the latter in the matter of slavery, in any of the states. In general, I found a great abatement of the severity with which our English friends are wont to judge of American slavery, when the true state of the case was fairly set before them. And when all other arguments failed, I generally found that a fair retort upon the evils of England and Ireland was enough to lower the tone of the most violent. "Why does not your American government put an end to slavery" "Because the American government has no power in the case." "But the government must have power to do right; and if it has not, ought to take it." " But the system has grown up with the people of the Southern States, is incorporated with all their institutions, is rec- ognised by their laws, and a violent abolition of it 310 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. would be a violation of rights guarantied by the con- stitutions of the several states." "Ah, but those rights are founded in wrong, and are therefore no rights." Let us turn the tables. "Why does your English gov- ernment permit the territory of Ireland to be held by a few rich families, while the majority of the people are living in wretchedness " "Oh! the government has no control over that matter." " But it ought to have con- trol over it." "No, it cannot violate the rights of prop- erty." "Ah, but those rights are founded in wrong, and. are therefore no rights." The truth is, that, under the present working of Brit- ish institutions, the mass of the people are slaves, and thefew are masters, without the responsibilities of mas- ters. The physical condition of the greater part of the slaves in the Southern States of America is better than that of millions in England and Ireland; their moral and intellectual state cannot be worse. I must not be understood as vindicating American slavery. I have no sympathy with the system, and would abolish it to-day if it were practicable. But I am not, and cannot be blind to the difficulties that sur- round the question of emancipation; and while I would use every practicable exertion to hasten the day of emancipation, I must be permitted to doubt the tenden- cy of measures such as those adopted by some classes of American Abolitionists, and of the abuse so freely heaped upon us by English writers, to bring on that happy day. Firmly believing that the religion of Christ is taking deep root in the Southern States, and that the spirit of slavery is incompatible with that religion, I trust that, in the good Providence of God, the time of our deliverance from this evil may not be remote. all 312 CONCLUSIOV. I left my reader at Cork. I must now take a hasty leave of him, simply stating that our party returned to London, spent some pleasant weeks again in England, and then departed for Hamburg, on the way to Ger- many and Italy. THE END.

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