one cannot help feeling how much national pride prays with him, and the religion of a gentleman. So far is he from attaching any meaning to the words, that he believes himself to have done almost the generous thing, and that it is very condescending in him to pray to God. The Anglican church is marked by the grace of its forms. The gospel it preaches is, "By taste are ye saved." It keeps the old structures in repair, spends a world of money in music and building; and in buying Pugin and architectural literature. It has a general good name for amenity and mildness. It is perfectly well-bred, and can shut its eyes on all proper occasions.'* A more interested witness, but one who knows far more of his subject, thus testifies. 'Long enjoyment of wealth and dignity has rendered the Church of England the very centre of British fashion, opulence, and respectability. All the the upward-looking flunkey ism of the Empire which is not troubled with religious scruples, gravitates toward that which Archbishop Synge called the gentleman's religion. The Church of England is the hereditary spiritual home of the proud British aristocracy, and of the landed families. It is the natural religion of nearly all young ladies, and therefore, of nearly all young gentlemen; the inevitable resort of all the gay advocates of decorative Christianity. It offers a religion capable of adaptation to all classes; it is an instrument of policy for statesmen; an easy ritual of discipleship for millions who wish for relation with it only at birth, marriage, and death; it has a pompous and dignified ceremonial for the soaring heierarch and for the fashionable church lounger; a plain and homely service for the country farmer and the ploughman; a searching and spiritual piety for the semi-devout and almost Christian; it has learning for the studious; philosophy for the speculative; liberty for the free-thinkers; uni

* English Traits.

formity for the rigorist; poetry, music, art, and architecture for the imaginative; and above all, it has social pre-eminence for the whole body of its devotees. Here, if anywhere, you may make the best of both worlds. To be a member of the Church of England is distinctly a recommendation in almost every walk of British life or enterprize, of public dignity or private endeavour; to be a Dissenter is a drawback and a discount upon your value.'

With such a whirlpool of temptation continually eddying within reach of us, who can wonder that the flippant and unprincipled characters amongst us are drawn off as chips and straws into its depths ? We form associations; we establish schools; we train up children; we teach, pray, watch, and weep over them till nature faints beneath the toil; we are cheered by signs of promise, and too sanguinely hope that they comprehend and appreciate the value of the principles we have unfolded; we loose the cable, and send them into the world; and when, in a few years, we return and enquire after the fate of our protegees, where do we find them? Gone to church, with Lord Dundreary, Mith Julia and the footman. The baby is sprinkled, the curate calls twice a week to catechise the other children, and their father has (almost) learned how to use the prayer book. If this were true of the vulgar herd merely, whose ignorance or coxcombry render them the natural prey of priestcraft and affectation, we could bear it. But when it happens to those more precious to us than the apple of the eye, over whose nurture we have brooded, whose talents and attainments have already changed our fondness to admiration, who were the solace of our retiring hour, and our hope for prosperity, how shall we hold our peace? We will not. While we mourn over our slain, our fight against the enemy shall bait not one jot of its intensity. We will bury our dead out of our

sight; but, that done, the enemy shall hear that our cry is still for war!' The battle shall rage with undiminished fury. Every injury that he has inflicted; every loss that we have sustained; every proselyte that he has perverted, shall go to swell the sum of that grand argument which forms our quarrel. One device shall blaze on every banner in our ranks- Overturn, overturn, overturn!' For every damage, for every insult, for every cowardly robbery, for every bloody oppression, will we exact penalty and ransom, till we put up our well-fleshed sword in the triumph of outraged justice and religion. The blood of martyrs is in our veins yet. We have burned, and we can burn again; but we will never turn. The spirits of Bunyan and Defoe, of Robinson and Hall,

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move invisibly amongst us, and their sacred mandate forbids the conflict to die. If we cannot destroy, we can hate; and as the foe moves nearer, and shows more vividly the hideous front which curdles our blood to gall, we grasp afresh every weapon of attack, and fling ourselves on him in more deadly antagonism, resolved to conquer or to die. It cannot be that this mountainous power of evil is eternal. If there is a Providence, a day must come, when this monster of iniquity shall be hurled by the triumphant Saviour of men to perdition, in the sight of those whom he has wounded or enslaved, and amidst the jubilations of an emancipated world. Even so, come Lord Jesus, and come quickly! So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord! O. M.

DEAR SIR,-Through a geographical mistake, many friends suppose that our Committee, and the churches in Leeds, are involved in the cotton distress. I beg to present their thanks for the cordial expression of brotherly sympathy; which, though not needed, is equally precious. Leeds is between thirty and forty miles from the cotton district, and happily is gloomy only with its own smoke, in which the natives exult, as it indicates a state of high prosperity. The very contrast between Leeds and Lancashire awakens the desire on our part to endeavour earnestly to mitigate the sorrows of our suffering brethren.

Since I wrote you last, many enquiries have been kindly made about the district of 30,000, to which I referred, that had not received help from the General Fund.' As

the objections presented were not the mere flimsy pretexts of niggardliness, and easily seen through, I have had pleasure in giving an explanation. It was to the district of Todmorden, where we have five churches that I alluded. No such Local Committee as the General Committee would recognize could apparently be formed there. The hindrance was entirely local, and one that our people could not remove. Nevertheless, it made their position most painful. On the day after my letter to you was sent, one church minister in the district published an account of a poor man, and said, 'His death was accelerated, if not actually caused, by two dreary walks in pitiless storms to obtain a miserable pittance called 'parish pay.' Another Todmorden clergymen writes and publishes, on the 20th of November, the following: I could tell many a tale of those who had been "laiking" (playing) for weeks and months, who had parted with the furniture, one article after another, until the room

appeared denuded; of some who had been, one day and part of another, without food; and of men who had struggled long, and whom I have seen walking up and down the parsonage yard, crying bitter tears of sorrow at their melancholy lot. One was without fire and light during the bitterly cold weather of the past week. One family of five had only one quilt and two sheets for bed clothing. I saw the bed upon which the three children slept, and they had only a miserable coverlet, and a woman's white cotton petticoat slit open for a sheet-no other bed clothes whatever.' One of our own ministers told me of a family that had eaten rothing one whole day but nettles. Such was the state of the locality where five of our churches were situated, and they largely participated in its awful sorrows. To assist them we were enabled by the handsome sums sent us to make liberal grants; but we speedily found that the difficulties were beyond our grasp. A vast amount of misery was mitigated it is true; but we soon saw that Denominational benevolence must look on hopelessly when set before an evil so gigantic, and we longed for help from the General Fund, and tried to secure it. On the 25th of November the cheering reply of Lord Derby to the question of the Leeds M.P., a grant has been made to Todmorden,' raised our hopes. Day after day, however, brought the sickening intelligence, 'nothing has come.' During this most critical season of the whole crisis the liberality of the Connexion was most opportune. We were enabled at once to raise our grants from four to ten pounds, and to make between fifty and sixty grants to all our distressed churches according to their need. God alone knows the relief they must have given, especially to the churches that were not aided from any other source. Not one shilling had been supplied from Manchester or the Mansion House to the whole district of 30,000 until Wednesday, the 10th day of December. So soon as this

came we saw a pencil of light in the dark cloud that had so long overhung the valley.

As far as I know we have now but one church situated where the General Fund does not reach. 'I can scarcely move,' says the pastor of that church, but some one is imploring me for a shilling.' 'James,' said a good Christian woman, speaking to him with the beautiful freedom of a sister, James, I have been thinking if I could lie down and die it would be a relief, for I am both clammed and starved.' (hungry and cold). On calling upon a man I found his wife had just been confined. There were two beds, or what should have been beds, one in each corner of the house for all the eight. Many say they do not know how they must have lived if I had not had the money you sent to give.' With the exception of this small church we may now be assured that as a general rule families out of employ can obtain two shillings per head per week, when there are three to five persons; and one shilling and ninepence when there are six and more; two young children being considered as one adult. These are the amounts received by the families connected with our churches. Can they live upon them? The Executive Committee of the General Relief Fund, say, on the 15th of December, two shillings per head is regarded by your Committee as the average minimum rate of income on which it is prudent to attempt to sustain the health of this population. This rate of aid requires, in their opinion, a separate provision of clothing, and a supply of coals to each indigent household.' To their judgment it is clear two shillings is insufficient. It requires a separate provision.' How, where, and by whom can it be made? Two shillings a week may, perhaps, just keep the life in a man; but on that amount he must be half-starved. A kind friend at Derby forwarded some beef, which we divided and sent. A brother wrote from a district where the Relief Fund is in opera

honest fellow, I could give you the names and residences, of a family of three having two shillings and sixpence a week; of a family of twelve having one shilling and fourpence halfpenny per head per week; of a family of three, whose bed clothes are old sacks, and the garments worn during the day. These, and a long list of others, are people connected with us, and are in work, Hundreds would give up work at once, if they could, and better their condition by throwing themselves upon the parish. There is, I see a suggestion that those at work, whose earnings do not reach the sum allowed by relief, shall have them made up to that amount. I hope this will be done.

On the whole then, while I think that the distress among our people is not so positively frightful as when I wrote last, still, I am sure there is needed all the help the Denomination can afford.

As the last Midland Conference, held at Loughborough, on the 2nd inst., associated my name with those of the Rev. J. Stevenson and Mr. Earp, to receive aid for ministers, I thought it my duty to make inquiry about their wants. I again say, that their toil is unremitting in the midst of the vast mass of sorrow to which they are called to minister. It did not surprise me to hear one of them declare, in the presence of others, 'When I go to bed and think of my own circumstances, and those of my people, I often, instead of sleeping, cry. The scenes I have witnessed follow me in my dreams.' I cannot think that our Connexion will allow ministers of their own-men liberal of mind, and unsparing of labour, and who, even in times of prosperity found the reward of their office as little as its work is great-to suffer loss through this calamity. Will it not be only generous to secure to our ministerial brethren, who have poured out their energies, and health, and money, in this trying season, at least their full salary? I know a minister who gave away

the last shilling he had in the world. One deacon said, 'Our people will pine themselves to help their minister.' In some cases from Lady Hewley's charity, and other sources, stipends will be made up. But in others they cannot from any source, except denominational liberality. Here is part of a letter from one minister. 'I feel it my painful duty to ask if nothing can be done to alleviate the distress of ministers, who are suffering through this great calamity. I have a wife and five children, with a salary of fifty pounds per annum, supplemented at one time with from twelve to sixteen shillings per week from my family. This income from my family has been completely cut off for twelve months. When rent is paid and coals purchased we have barely two shillings per head per week left for food. Nothing at all for clothing or bedding, I can assure you it is hard work to live month after month at this rate, and see our things wear out and no prospect of replacing them. I cannot allow myself to sink and die without raising the cry for help for us poor ministers.' Personally knowing your brethren I implore that liberal aid be rendered them through Messrs. Stevenson and Earp.

Allow me to say, that other parts of Christ's church are still assisting their ministers and people most bountifully. I rejoice to see that the other section of Baptists published, on the 10th instant, their receipts as £3,637; and inthe Freeman, on the 19th ult. that their distressed churches were only twenty-two. We have fourteen (another application having been made this morning), and these consist mainly of operatives. The amount of our receipts, as our judicious treasurer will publish with this letter, will form, I fear, a painful contrast to the one presented by our Particular Baptist brethren. I speak not, however, in the language of censure or complaint. I have no reason. So soon as it was known that brethren were in distress there was an out-burst of generous Chris