LETTER XV.

London, July, 1842.

WHILE writing up my notes, and suffering at the same time under severe indisposition, I have received your Lordship's letter announcing the death of the great and good Bishop of Meath. "My father! my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" A greater loss could scarcely have befallen our common church and our common country. His whole life was spent in advancing "Glory to God in the Highest," by the means which the herald angels pronounced, by promoting "peace upon earth, good will towards men." The rule of conduct from which he never deviated was to seek noble ends by noble means; in public and in private his career was the best commentary on his Master's precept, "Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves," which I ever knew. The blow has stunned me; but "Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, O King of Saints!" "Thy will be done!"

Before starting on my late tour I promised that venerated prelate to send him some observations on the religious condition of the manufacturing population, with particular reference to the means and appliances by which the Church is enabled to act upon its aggregated masses, and also with reference to the greater proportion of Dissenters in the north than in the south of England. On the latter point I have already remarked that, in my opinion, something must be attributed to diversity of race. The pure Saxons appear to have stronger elements of enthusiasm and independence in their composition than the mixed races of the southern counties. To use a phrase of another traveller who went over part of the same ground nearly at the same time as myself, "there is a spice of the wild man in the foresters of Rosendale and Pendle." Drayton, in his 'Polyolbion,' notices the spirit of the dances of Lancashire:—

"Ye lusty lasses, then, in Lancashire that dwell,
For beauty that are said to bear away the bell,
Your country's hornpipe ye so mincingly that tread,
As ye the egg-pie love, and apple-cherry red;
In all your mirthful songs and merry-meetings tell
That Irwell every way the Ribble doth excel."

He further mentions that the Palatine county was remarkable for a noble breed of buck-hounds, and still more for its excellent archers, whose bows had ensured the triumph of the red rose over the white. An anonymous writer in Elizabeth's reign describes Lancashire as a stronghold of popery and puritan

ism," and the latter was manifested in the great excitement produced by the case of the witches in Pendle Forest. During the civil wars the Lancastrians on both sides were distinguished for the zeal and energy they threw into their enthusiasm, and, in our own days, the fever of political excitement has nowhere risen to higher heat than in the principal towns of this county.

A spirit which is at once so excitable and so sturdy seems to have a natural tendency to emancipate itself from fixed forms; at least, it would require very delicate management to keep it within the pale of an establishment. Dissent once begun could not easily be checked, for the Lancastrians are equally obstinate and sincere; the latter quality being proved by the largeness of their contributions to various religious institutions and charities.

The number of the clergy of the Established Church in the manufacturing district is inadequate to the duties which the clerical body is bound to perform. Personal acquaintance with the members of each congregation, domestic visitation, and moral superintendence, have become physically impossible. There is another difficulty; the Lancashire dialect has a larger infusion of the genuine old Saxon than our ordinary language, and clergymen, in consequence of their classical education, are necessarily inclined to use a great number of Latinized phrases and forms, which are not familiar, and therefore not easily intel

ligible, to their congregation. Furthermore, in every industrial branch employing large numbers, such as the cotton-manufacture, there arises a gergo, or language of convention, which those who are anxious to obtain influence over them must acquire. Hence it almost inevitably happens that a preacher, as is commonly said, "shoots over the heads of his congregation;" they listen to his sermon as an act of religious duty, but, for all the improvement of head or heart they derive from it, they might as well have listened to "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." “Understandest thou what thou readest?" is a question which should often be put to students of Scripture; but "Understandest thou what thou hearest ?" is just as necessary a question to many frequenters of churches.

The late Dr. Arnold proposed to establish a kind of lay ministry, which would place at the disposal of the minister of every parish a staff of assistants not very dissimilar to the elders and deacons of the Scottish Church, or the class of local preachers and classleaders among the Methodists, who might, under his superintendence, lecture, catechize, and convey religious instruction without administering religious ordinances. I do not know whether it was intended to combine with these duties the administration of charitable funds, as was the case in the order of deacons as originally constituted in the early Christian church, and as is the case in "the Ministry for the Poor "

extensively established in America and partially in this country; but such a union is very desirable: a man is more ready to believe in the purity of an anxiety to improve the state of his soul, when a desire is previously shown to relieve the wants of his body. Christ's lessons of faith were usually accompanied by miracles of mercy.

But, with or without this addition, sure I am that, without some such institution, any scheme of church extension will be a loss of time, labour, and money. The clergyman cannot get at the people; there is no community of taste, habit, or language between the parties; he cannot understand them, and they cannot understand him; and hence, when they come in contact, they too often part in mutual vexation. An interpreting medium is wanting, and, unless there are insuperable difficulties in the way, it ought to be supplied.

I have been asked by some persons of high authority whether I anticipate any difficulties in the establishment of such an institution. Candour requires me to say that I do, and that some of them are of no small magnitude. Ours is pre-eminently a partisan age; no plan for the improvement of society can be proposed that is not viewed by all parties in its relation to politics, with little or no respect to its intrinsic merits. On the other hand, it has become exceedingly difficult for any man, or any class of men, to hold an independent position; if they do not enlist