the closest union, would not be in any degree too great to meet the dangers which threaten them both in com

mon.

But it is an evil which must be laid as much to the fault of the dissenters as of the Church. They have been quite as intolerant, and talked quite as foolishly about the superstition of the Church Services, as their antagonists on their side have talked of the sin of schism. And at this moment, if the government should attempt to effect an union between the Church and the Dissenters, there would be found quite as many obstacles to such a plan on the part of the latter as of the former. Nor is this wonderful, if we remember that the Dissenting Ministers, generally speaking, are men of inferior education, and inferior rank to the Established Clergy, and have thus a less share of the two great antidotes to bigotry-a large acquaintance with the wisdom of ancient times on the one hand, and with various classes of living men, viewing things in many different lights, on the other.

But it is far from my purpose to throw blame either on Churchmen or Dissenters. Thus much, however, is clear, that from the Church, as holding the vantage ground, ought to proceed the first advances to a reconciliation. Now, if uniformity be insisted on, reconciliation is of course out of the question: two men of different habits cannot live together on friendly terms, if either be called upon to conform to the fashions of the other; and a compromise of our own opinions has always something about it so bordering upon meanness and insincerity, that no good fruit can be looked for from a seed so rotten.

One great cause of Dissent has been the utter inefficiency of the Church in populous towns, as a religious society. Men's feelings of Christian union, all their social propensities as Christians, desire some better satisfaction than to be members of a parish of 10,000 or 20,000 souls, half of whom must necessarily be strangers to the other half. It is impossible that they can have much personal

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knowledge of their Minister under such circumstances; and what sort of a society is it in which the members neither know one another, nor him who, in some respects, is their head? In forming themselves into a distinct religious society when so situated, the Dissenters acquired a bond of charity more than they had before, but I know not what bond it was which their conduct violated.

This cause of Dissent would cease if the parishes in our large towns were properly subdivided; and the same measure would remove another cause not less powerful, the actual want of room in the churches of the Establishment for the population which that Establishment professes to instruct. But other causes would still remain, and could not be so easily obviated. Some, however worldly their character, are in practice among the most difficult to overcome. I mean the property vested in the different Dissenting chapels, and the incomes actually enjoyed by their ministers. It would not be easy to purchase these, and this alone, therefore, would seem an indissoluble bar to such an union with Dissenters as should merely merge them in the Church Establishment, supposing that by some compliance with their religious objections the Establishment might become such as they would not on religious grounds alone object to join.

There is yet another cause of Dissent very deeply rooted. The established clergy must belong generally to the richer classes, because so long as a residence at the university is a necessary passport to ordination, none but the rich can afford to enter the Church. But separated as the richer and poorer classes are from one another in England, separated not only in manners, habits, and feelings, but actually in language also, who can wonder if the poor desire a religious instructor with whom they can more nearly sympathize than with their regular clergyman, -an instructor who by birth, station, language, and manners, is more nearly one of themselves. True it is that when the regular clergyman is at once a good man and a sen

sible man, his being a gentleman is all so much in his favour; for though a gentleman parson be a very bad thing if the gentleman be the predominant element in the compound, yet a good parson who in education and feeling is a thorough gentleman beside, in the best sense of the word, inspires justly a degree of respect and confidence as well as of affection which the poor never can feel towards a man of coarser manners and less education. But in the nature of things there will be always a great many of the clergy in whom the gentleman, not in the best sense of the word, is predominant over the parson; and then as far as the poor are concerned, the salt that had lost its savour was not more worthless than they find such a minister.

Besides these causes of Dissent there is yet another, which, however, I am inclined to rank among the least really powerful of all: I mean the actual differences of opinion on matters of religion. I cannot enter into particulars on this point, for the same reason which made me abstain in my last letter from considering the expediency of some reform in our liturgy and articles. But when I think what the points are on which we and the Dissenters disagree, except in the case of the Unitarians, I am fully satisfied that they ought not to hinder good men, while keeping firmly to what they themselves think the truth, from co-operating in the great cause common to all Christians with those who hold the opposite opinions.

I see then some cause of Dissent existing which a needful reform in our own Establishment would remove; others again are independent of any conceivable extent of reform; while a third class are indeed invincible obstacles to uniformity, but ought to be none to union. And he who knows the history of the Christian Church has too good cause to remember how fatally the pursuit of this foolish phantom uniformity has lured men from the attainment of the real and substantial blessing, union. Let us leave the Dissenters in the undisturbed enjoyment of their own or

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ganization, and government, and doctrines; but let us cease to call or think them schismatics or enemies. reforming ourselves in those points which manifestly need it, we shall probably bring over many to our communion in the most honourable manner; and for those who remained, if we treated them as allies more valuable in their own independent manner of fighting, than if forced against nature to adopt ours-capable of meeting the wants of the poorer classes in the very points where the Establishment can least satisfy them, and affording an exercise for that natural and commendable desire after social organization, which a national Establishment has less room for, we should find the Dissenters most valuable friends and co-operators in that great work of Christian improvement which is, or ought to be, the one great object of every Christian society.

[The following Letters are on miscellaneous subjects.]

EDUCATION OF THE MIDDLE CLASSES.

LETTER I.

April, 1832.

SIR, Four months have elapsed since I last addressed you; and the course of events has certainly not slumbered during the interval. Would that I could see less cause for deep anxiety in the present state of affairs than there was four months ago; but it cannot be pretended that the most alarming symptoms have as yet suffered any abatement. Wickedness is no less active, and folly no less loud. I fear, too, we must add that honesty and wisdom are no less supine and silent.

We are all aware of the growing power of the middling classes of society, and we know that the Reform Bill will at once increase this power, and consolidate it. But power, like every other gift bestowed upon us by God's Providence, is not a mere gratuity, but a trust: it is given

us to do good with it; and, therefore, it is far better both for ourselves and others that we should not possess it at all, than that we should not know how to use it.

There is one party in the country who wish the mass of the people to be shut out from political power, and who maintain, their belief agreeing with their wish, that the people will never be fit to exercise it. Another party triumphs in the prospect of the increased power of the mass of the community, without seeming to care whether it be fitted to discharge so important a trust or no. Now, Sir, I am earnestly desirous that the people should grow jointly in power and true knowledge; but at the same time I should regard their power as the worst of evils, if true knowledge were not to accompany it.

It seems to me, then, that the education of the middling classes at this time, is a question of the greatest national importance. I wish exceedingly to draw public attention to it; and at the same time, if I may be allowed to do so, to impress most strongly on those engaged in conducting it, the difficulty of their task, as well as its vast importance; how loudly it calls for their very best exertions, and how nobly those exertions, wisely directed, may hope to be rewarded. And on this, as on other subjects, feeling sincerely that my own information is limited, I should be very glad to be the means of inducing others to write upon it, who may be far better acquainted with its details than I am.

The schools for the richer classes are, as it is well known, almost universally conducted by the clergy; and the clergy, too, have the superintendence of the parochial schools for the poorer classes. But between these two extremes there is a great multitude of what are called English, or commercial schools, at which a large proportion of the sons of farmers and of tradesmen receive their education. In some instances these are foundation schools, and the master is appointed by, and answerable to, the trustees of the charity; but more commonly they