The editor of the Morning Post in his congratulations to the public on the conquest of the island of Walcheren exclaims-" We "are rejoiced to find that this important and commanding Island is "henceforward to be permanently incorporated with the British Empire, and (doubtless to the great joy of the people) to be go"verned by the mild and salutary laws of Great Britain." The Hollanders have given evident proof during both the last and the present war, that they are not very forward to accept our repeatedly kind offers of exchanging their own government and laws for ours: and as to our ministers" permanently incorporating the island with "the British empire," it is at this very time a question with our naval and military officers in the service, whether it will be worth while, or indeed whether we shall be able to keep possession of the island for three months: the expence of rebuilding the ruins of Flushing, and of placing the fortifications in such a state as to render the place tenable, is estimated at from 2 to 300,000l. But we will venture to predict that France will not suffer us to keep the "Shrapnell shot sent out ; [to Spain:] they did wonderful execution, for after ❝ doing all the service of a common ball, and apparently spent, they burst "and spread destruction all around. It is without exception the most mur"derous weapon ever invented!"

"

In another Morning Chronicle, the same writer contemplating a scene of human slaughter in Spain; last year, thus amuses himself. "The imperial guard of Bonaparte took a great deal of killing! They wear an iron hel« met, iron shoulder knot, and an iron queue. Our people were at first "surprised that their swords made no impression on their heads and "shoulders, but they soon found out the vulnerable part!"

When we reflect on the indifference with which mankind in general, and those in particular who call themselves Christians! read of the complicated horrors attending a sea fight, a field of battle, a siege, or a bombardment : when every demonstration of joy, the firing of cannon, ringing of bells, &c. is displayed, and the only object abtained is the slaughter of 7, or 8000 of ́our enemies, although the price paid is the slaughter of 5, or 6000 of our countrymen; we know not whether the following description of war, by Dean Swift is more remarkable for its awful truth, or its just satire. -"Being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of can, nons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, " bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, "bombardments, sea-fights; ships sunk with a thousand men; twenty "thousand killed on each side; dying groans, limbs flying in the air; "smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses feet; flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to dogs and wolves, and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning and "destroying. And to set forth the valour of my own dear countrymen, I assured him, that I had seen them blow up a hundred enemies at once. " in a siege, and as many in a ship; and beheld the dead bodies come down * in pieces from the clouds,to the great diversion of the spectators."

Gulliver's Travels--Voyage to the Houyhnhnms, Chap. V

island, and that we shall most assuredly find that if the cabinet are so weak as to declare, that " Walcheren shall be incorporated "with the British empire," when the period arrives for negociation they will, as those of them who were members of the PITt and ADDINGTON administrations have already done, forfeit his Majesty's word, which they so rashly pledge, and sacrifice the honour of the nation, by giving up objects they officially declare they never will give up, and for the attainment of which they will obstinately persevere in their just and necessary war, till they can hold out no longer.

Surely the indignation of our countrymen must be excited on be holding the resources of the nation which ought to be most carefully husbanded for our own immediate defence, drained and wasted in the attainment of objects, comparatively trifling, and at best inglo. rious! The conduct of our ministers is constantly furnishing additional arguments to enforce the absolute necessity of Reform, in the House of Commons, as the grand and only effectual prelude to Reform in every department of government.

ADDITIONAL EXPENCE OF THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT.

For several sessions past, the attention of the legislature has been occasionally turned to the state of the church, so far as relates to the temporalities of the clergy; for as to any reform in our ecclesiastical establishment, more especially as it relates to the universal practice of solemnly subscribing to articles, and swearing to statutes, which no clergymen believes as he professes to do, in the sight of the great searcher of hearts, ex animo, it is in vain to expect any reformation. Thirty years ago, the consciences of some of the clergy were so far awakened and alarmed on this subject, that they united in petitioning the House of Commons for relief from these intolerable impositions; but the pleas of conscience were, by our leading statesmen, as might naturally be expected, turned into ridicule, and the clerical petition was rejected by a large majority. One of the most excellent men that ever adorned the church of England, or the christian church in general, the late THEOPHILUS LINDSEY, together with two or three of his brethren, resigned their preferments, trusting to Providence for their future support: thereby manifesting to the world, the prime, the essential characteristic of a true christian, forsaking ALL for the cause of truth, and a good conscience. Since that period, however, a general lethargy appears to have seized the church, excepting in certain cases, in which the reverend body in ` general, have been employed as the tools of statesmen, in the service of war, corruption and intolerance, whilst individuals have endeavoured to stifle the risings of conscience in themselves and others, by pretending to persuade the religious world, that although

subscriptions and oaths are still regarded in courts of justice in the plain and obvious sense of the framers and imposers, these matters are in the church, essentially different; that THERE a man may subscribe and swear to articles and statutes, in any sense he pleases; be may subscribe and swear to them, to use a fashionable clerical phrase, as articles "not of dispute but of peace;" that is NOT IN ANY SENSE! Thus this important matter, which deeply affects the foundations, not only of that virtue inculcated by christianity, but of that morality inculcated by the light of nature, appears to be set at rest; and all ranks and classes of the clergy, those who are distinguished by the term evangelical, equally with others, seem to be well contented that matters should remain as they are; and there is little reason to expect that any essential reform will take place, till the righteous, and long defied justice, of Heaven visits the Church of England, as it has visited other established churches.

Amongst the various abuses which have long reigned triumphant in our church establishment, that of NON-RESIDENCE, termed by Bishop Burnet, the "peculiar scandal of the church of England," is one of the most prominent, and has proved a perpetual subject of complaint, more especially to the sober and serious part of the nation. All remonstrances, however on the subject, from the pulpit or the press, seemed useless. At length it was found out by a certain class of informers, that a great part of the clergy were by their conduct in this respect, violating the laws, and that they were exposed thereby to heavy penalties; a considerable part of which went on conviction to the prosecutor. So many actions were, in consequence of this discovery, commenced against the clergy, that the clerical body, although the most forward when called upon by their patrons to preach obedience not only to the laws, but to the will of the statesmen of the day, finding how they stood exposed for their own long continued disobedience, procured an act of the legislature for their protection, by which almost the whole of the prosecutions were stopped. In the following session another act was passed, by which the evil complained of was, in a trifling degree, and in some few instances, remedied; but in such a manner, as to throw additional power into the hands of the bishops, and to make the lower ranks of the clergy still more dependent on the higher, To render the system more complete, an act was passed at the close of the last session, which seems to have excited little discussion within the two houses, and none at all without, The speech of that staunch high churchman, Lord HARROWBY, who, brought up in the school of PITT, had deeply imbibed the instructions of his master, contains much information on the, subject; and as it was only given in one of the papers, the Morning Post (the Editor of which honoured it with his peculiar eulogiums) we presented it

Fact

to our readers.* His lordship not improperly terms the act passed in a former session, with the professed design of enforcing the residence of the clergy-" A bill for the protection of non-residence!"* The apology which his lordship at the same time offered for this practice is curious: "The state, feeling its own unwillingness, and "fancying its inability to give the church the means of being what "it ought to be, was ashamed of demanding from it exertions "which it would not enable it to make. It made a sort of amends "to the church, for neglecting its pecuniary interests, by not "calling on it for the strict discharge of all its duties; and it "made the same sort of amends to the people for neglecting to pro "vide them with the means of worship, and the opportunities of "instruction, by abstaining from calling upon them for any pecuni"ary sacrifice!" To this sophistry we beg leave to reply, that when the state thought proper to hire its ecclesiastical servants, it was on the express condition of the due performance of certain services. So far from the pecuniary interests of the church having been neglected, they have been carefully watched, and liberally attended to. No inclosure bills, no improvements, no speculations in' agriculture, but the clergy have had their proportionate share, and many instances, more than their proportionate share of the profit. The value of the tythes of the clergy in general, and of the revenues of the bishops in particular, have very much increased; and if the salaries of the inferior clergy have not increased in proportion, it is entirely owing to the injustice and avarice of their em-" ployers. That the clergy" have not been called upon for the strict discharge of all their duties," or in other words, to reside on their livings and to feed, as well as fleece the flocks committed to their charge, is disgraceful to the legislature, which has so long connived at the violation of the laws of the church, and has made no attempt to correct the gross inequalities in the payment of its ministers; and. at the same time affords an addition to that mass of evidence already before the public, of the absolute necessity of a reform of parliament, that we may have representatives who will consider it their duty to watch over the revenues paid by the people to the church, as well as those paid by them to the state.†

in

* See Sup. to Vol. V. Page 480-4.

† At the time of voting the additional grant to the clergy, a petition recently presented by Mr. Whitbread lay on the table, from the Rev. Mr. Humphreys, curate of Sanlay, in the county of Derby, stating " that the "Rector of the parish derived 24001. a year from the same; and that he himself had no more than 401. a year for his labour; and praying for such relief as the house might think fit."

The following advertisement lately appeared in several of the public prints:

1

As to the "neglect of the state in providing the people with the "means of worship, and the opportunities of instruction," there is some reason to believe, that the people do not want the state fur-' ther to concern itself about the matter. The churches already, provided are not in general remarkable for thronged congregations; and wherever the people have any concern for their religious interests they will with little difficulty find at least as ample and efficient means of instruction out of the established church as in it. The fact is, that the interests of real religion have been best maintained by those who have never been paid by the state, a single shilling for their services. The late Doctor Priestley affirmed, that the Methodists, had, during the last half century, done more for the civilization of the lower orders of the people, than the whole body of the established clergy! The Archbishop of Canterbury in a late discussion respecting the vast increase of licences, candidly acknowledged, the laudable zeal of the Dissenters in providing places of worship in proportion to the increased population. The remark which is so justly applicable to the civil and political interests of the people, is equally applicable to their religious interests; the more they attend to those interests themselves, and the less they trust them to others, the more advantageously will they be conducted. Religion in particular is a personal concern, and mere state religion, is like the religion of most statesmen, at best useless, and generally hurtful; and in all ages of the world has proved instrumental in enslaving both the bodies and the souls of the multitude.

The system which has been proposed by Lord LIVERPOOL, and Mr. PERCEVAL, so strenuously supported by Lord HARROWBY, and adopted by the legislature," in aid of the distressed state of "the church," is to grant 100,000l. per annum, in augmentation of Queene Anue's bounty in favour of the inferior clergy. This 100,0001. per annum of the money of the people has been granted without opposition in either house. One of the noble lords" was happy, not "to hear of any opposition upon narrow impolitic views of public economy, and he did not expect to hear any." The felicity of the noble lord must on the retrospect he was taking of our national

66

"To be sold by Auction, the perpetuity and next presentation of the "valuable sinecure rectory of the parish of Wimbish, two miles from Saf"fron Walden, in the county of Essex, of the estimated value of 5761. per annum. The rectory is a perpetuity in fee, and nearly equal in value to a freehold estate, it being a sinecure, and the only qualification necessary " is being in orders, as there is neither residence or duty required, and is "tenable with any other Two church livings.”

86

Would not a house of Commons that deserved the title of the representatives of the people, and the faithful guardians of the public interests, have instituted an inquiry into these and various other clerical abuses equally gross, before they had granted the addition above stated?