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proclaim in the ears of all the people, there is no risht and no wrong in these matters.' Let them keep in the back-ground, and simply supply funds to those bodies which seem to them best able to perform the task of education.

At present the Government supplies money for one only purpose, the erection of schools. The sum has been continually increasing in amount, having risen in the last thirteen years from 20,000l. to 75,000l. We do not see why the support of the schools so built should not be equally admissible as an object for the Government grants; nor why the National Society, which is allowed to collect money under a queen's letter, should not also receive direct parliamentary aid. We could wish to see the annual grant made a quarter of a million: 75,000l. towards the erection of schools, 50,000l. to the National Society, 125,000Z. among the Diocesan Boards.

With regard to the schools themselves, we have sufficiently expressed our opinion. They should all be gradually brought under the direction of masters educated at one of the various training institutions erected or to be erected for the purpose. These masters should be assisted by one or more paid apprentices, and the system of monitors should be discarded. The scriptural instruction should be placed upon that footing which we recommend above (page 343.)

We could wish, further, to see a separation made between the functions of the Diocesan Boards and those of the National Society. At present they perform exactly the same offices, and something of conflicting interests, some occasional jarring and want of harmony is the consequence. We would have the entire management and control of the parochial schools transferred to the Diocesan Boards, and the whole training of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses and their assistants undertaken by the National Society. This division of labour, could it be effected, would, we are sure, very much tend to the general improvement of the educational system.

Finally, with regard to Dissenters, we shall make no objection to the Government affording them similar pecuniary assistance to that afforded the Church, in proportion to their numbers or even to their necessities. According to the principles of government to which the leading men of all parties have committed themselves of late years, this is indispensable.

And now we trust we have heard the last of schemes of comprehensive government education. If Dr. Hook, notwithstanding his vigorous and acute intellect, has utterly failed in producing a scheme which is tolerable, who shall hope to succeed in the attempt? Who shall bring to the task a sounder judgment, greater knowledge of men and things, more freedom from prejudice, more attachment in his heart to principles? And yet when

was ever failure more signal than his has been? May it serve as a warning, and deter all future adventurers!

The fact is, that a government cannot possibly adopt an educational scheme suitable to a divided people. While our " unhappy divisions" last, Government must be content to stand aloof, adopting no scheme, allowing all, supporting those which seem the most effective and the worthiest. This would undoubtedly be a most unsatisfactory line of proceeding, if it were looked upon as likely to be permanent. We, however, regard the present as a transition state. Dissent grew up, and became what it is,-a thing of which statesmen cannot but take account, owing to neglect on the part of the Church itself. Dissent saved our manufacturing and mining population from something much worse-Heathenism. The Church looked on complacently while gigantic towns grew up with church room for about one in fifty, and often no school or schoolmaster. The State did nothing towards reminding the Church of her responsibilities or aiding her to grapple with them. Dissent gave this abandoned population an imperfect form, but still a form of Christianity. In all our dealings with Dissenters let this never be forgotten. They have done a great work-not well indeed, but still they have done it after a sort-a work which we neglected to do. Let this be remembered to their honour, and let churchmen be the last to forget the fact or shrink from noticing it.

Dissent having been thus allowed to obtain a firm hold on the affections of a large part of the people, will not now die away of a sudden. Such an expectation can scarcely be entertained by the veriest visionary. Still we do not look upon it as permanent. There is no principle of life in Dissent, quá Dissent. It has life indeed, but the life which it possesses, it has in common with us. Where it is opposed to the Church, it is a dead, unfructifying thing. It must continually subdivide, it has no principle of coherence, it will assuredly be in time swallowed up, if not entirely, yet to a very great extent, by its adversary. As the Church more and more manifests her hidden life, Dissenters will be more and more attracted to her, love will draw them. They will come over gradually-there will be no sudden movement-divisions will take place in the several sects, and at each division the Church will gain some-at the last Dissent will be reduced to numerical insignificance. The Church will again fold the nation,' and Church and State will once more be identical. Then the Government may come forward if it pleases with a consistent unobjectionable project of National Education. Till then we trust to hear no more of any comprehensive scheme.

Documents relative to the Erection and Endowment of additional Bishopricks in the Colonies; with a short Historical Preface. pp. xxxi. 62. Rivington. 1844.

The Church in the Colonies. Nos. I. to XIII. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 1844-1846. Historical Notices of the Missions of the Church of England in the North American Colonies previous to the Independence of the United States. By ERNEST HAWKINS, B.D. 8vo. pp. 468. Fellowes. Fellowes. 1845.

Journal of a Visitation-Tour through the Provinces of Madura and Tinnevelly, in the Diocese of Madras, in August and September, 1845. By the Right Rev. G. T. SPENCER, D.D., Lord Bishop of Madras. 1846, pp. 328. Rivingtons.

Journal of a Visitation-Tour in 1843 and 4, through part of the Western Portion of his Diocese. By the Right Rev. G. T. SPENCER, D.D., Lord Bishop of Madras. 1845, pp. 360. Rivingtons.

Third Report of the Episcopal Committee for the Erection and Endowment of additional Bishopricks in the Colonies. 1846.

THERE are few subjects connected with the state and prospects of the English Church on which we, as churchmen, can look with more satisfaction and hopefulness, than her episcopate in the colonies. Here, indeed, it is more than refreshing to turn our thoughts and our eyes from the controversies and disputesthe misgiving and mistrust of men of all parties-the bitterness and tenacity with which minute points of æstheticism are contended for, and the laxity and carelessness with which great principles are let slip-which meet our view when we look at the state of ecclesiastical and theological affairs at home: from such strife and contention as this, it is most comforting and inspiring to turn to the Church as she is now making her way in the colonies of the British empire.

For, first, it is a real satisfaction to find a point on which theologians of all classes and schools among us can agree. And here is one. It seems now admitted on all hands, that if the Church is to be planted in our colonies with any chance of success, or indeed of ultimate existence, it must be under apostolic discipline and in ecclesiastical integrity. Unless a Church can show itself to and in a nation, by its bishops as well as its priests and deacons, the utmost that can be expected is a languishing existence, not certainly a permanent foundation and successful ad

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vance. The absurdity (to say no more) of telling every sponsor that he is bound to bring' his godchild to the Bishop to be confirmed by him,' when there is no Bishop of the same communion, perhaps, within a thousand miles, has at last been seen and acknowledged on all sides. Accordingly, that our colonies must be provided with Bishops, and that speedily, is now asserted, or at least readily allowed, by men of all religious parties, as they are called; and that those bishops must be supported, and their hands strengthened; in fact, that the Church must be planted and pushed forward by and through them seems as generally admitted. Accordingly, we find the names of men of the most opposite schools and different opinions affixed as subscribers to the fund for the endowment of additional Colonial Bishopricks, as well as contributors to the funds raised for the advancement of the Church in several of the dioceses.

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Here then, we repeat, is cause for great comfort. leaders of contending schools-these men, who do not hesitate mutually to charge each other with unfaithfulness to the Church of which both profess to be members, have at any rate some common ground. There is at least one cause which both can unite to advance; and that one cause, happily, is to extend and strengthen the Church to which they belong. And this ought to be no common or slight satisfaction to the members of the English Church, as proving how much of exaggeration there is and must be in the charges made against extreme men of all parties. proves, indeed, that such persons are really more attached to their Church than people give them credit for; for certainly no man will give his money (not to say his energy and zeal, and the support of his name) to extend or advance a religious community of whose tenets and polity he cannot approve. No man who is really a Romanist at heart'-no man who is more than half a dissenter' (to use phrases we hear bandied about every day) will spend himself in labour, or deny himself to part with his substance, in order to plant a Church, of the truth and catholicity of which he doubts, or to whose doctrine and discipline he objects.

The progress and the state of the episcopate in the colonies is a strong proof too of the vitality-the real, living power of the Anglican Church-a power and possession of life, of which it is too little to say, that no coldness or even adverse pressure of state influence has been able to extinguish it, but which has expanded and developed itself in a remarkable degree under difficulties and discouragements. The manner in which the English Church claimed for her colonial branches the complete apostolic constitution of the Church Catholic, and, after a century of untiring and reiterated demands, succeeded in wringing that constitution from ministers callous or adverse to the cause of the Church, is indeed

*

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most remarkable. And these claims, be it remembered, were made and renewed during a time when a deadness not only as to the constitution and claims of the Church, but even as to Religion itself, (in the broadest sense of the word,) had overspread a large number in almost all classes of men in this country; and as Archbishop Secker truly remarks, these demands for a colonial episcopate proceeded, not exclusively from the Bishops, who might have an interest in advancing or multiplying their order, but from the inferior clergy, who felt their efforts paralysed, and their zeal wasted, without the presence and directing aid of an apostolic guide; and not only so, but chiefly from a Society containing among its members a large number of the laity; as well as from lay members of the Church in the colonies themselves. We cannot here trace the history of the establishment and development of the episcopate in the British colonies; but whoever will turn to Mr. Hawkins' interesting preface to the Documents relative to the Erection and Endowment of additional Bishopricks in the Colonies,' will find himself not only amply repaid, but will see much to give him comfort and hope. It is now universally known, that after a struggle against the combined difficulties thrown in the way by politicians and dissenters for nearly a century, the first episcopal see in the British colonies (that of Nova Scotia) was founded in 1787. Dividing the period of about sixty years which has intervened into three equal intervals, we shall find that in the first twenty years but one other see was founded; in the next period, from 1807 to 1827, three new sees were founded; and since that time, i. e. in the last nineteen years, fourteen + additional Colonial Bishopricks have been erected, the endowment of several of which has been effected or aided by the fund commenced in 1841 for that purpose. Here then, we say, is cause for real heartfelt thankfulness; for stedfast confidence in our Church, and earnest hope for her future advancement at home as well as abroad: for surely this, if anything can be so, is a proof that the Church of England needs but a fair opportunity to put forward and to exhibit all the expansive power of a vigorous life which the Church Catholic has ever exhibited. And again, that she has now shown that her constitution is cramped and incomplete, without a fair and sufficient development of the episcopate, and that she demands, not that her priests and deacons be presided over by a few Bishops, a constant and invariable number, ruling over vast dioceses too great for their personal supervision and direction; but that, ac

* In his letter to Horace Walpole, (Works, vol. xi. p. 342,) quoted by Mr. Hawkins in his historical preface to Documents, &c. and History of Missions, &c.

This number includes the two new sees of Melbourne and Morpeth in Australia, to the erection and constitution of which her Majesty has given her consent; but to which appointments have not as yet been made. See the Third Report of the Epis. copal Committee.

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