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then free from the anomaly, the existence of which constitutes our difficulties......

§1. [Legislative interference considered on] Conservative Principles1.

"A union between excellent men of all parties for the maintenance of peace and order!" excellent truly, and of all parties! parties who agree in nothing but a wish to maintain peace and good order! who differ in opinion respecting all man's higher interests and duties, respecting all those points about which to differ is to disapprove; who will unite on no other basis than that of selfish worldly convenience; and yet who are to recognise each other as excellent men! How can one protest too earnestly against such mawkishness as this?

Excellent Independents forsooth; and excellent Socinians; and excellent Jews; excellent aliens from the Church of Christ; excellent unbelievers in the faith, in the which "he that believeth not shall be damned;" and, to amalgamate the strange mass, excellent latitudinarians, who, like Gallio, "care for none of these things!" These excellent persons are to come together, and, waving those minor points on which they differ, to unite on those of which all acknowledge the importance,-the maintenance of peace and good order.

And yet, say many considerate persons, it is much easier to declaim against the absurdity of

1 [From the British Magazine for July, 1833.]

such an arrangement than to suggest a substitute for it, which is at once better and practicable. It may be very true that peace and good order are but of secondary importance to the well-being of society; it may be very sad and grievous to abandon the nobler parts of our political system; it may be a revolting task to co-operate with those for whom we entertain a just and deep-rooted antipathy: all this may be, and yet it may become a wise and good man to lay a strong restraint upon his feelings, and to accept, as an alternative, what in itself he considers ever so objectionable.

Such is the tone of many considerate and rightminded persons, who, looking to the present dispositions of Parliament, and to the probable current of what is called public opinion, have judged it, humanly speaking, impossible for the Church of England to recover her lost ascendancy in the councils of this nation. They believe, and perhaps justly, that the changes lately introduced into the British constitution have enabled the dissenting and latitudinarian parties to overthrow any government formed on exclusive principles; and that no set of men will ever again share a preponderating influence except on the basis of concession; in short, that an effort to secure to ourselves any thing more than peace and good order, can end in nothing less than anarchy and confusion.

Now is this the real state of the case? Is our position indeed so altered in the course of the last few years? This is no unimportant question, no

dreamy unpractical speculation, no subject for profitless inquiry or otiose acquiescence. If we must indeed make up our minds to the course which is here prescribed; if we must abandon all hopes of recovering our lost position; if we are no longer to contend for the exclusive supremacy that was formerly deemed the right of the Church of England; -if so, then it is high time for us to look the truth in the face, to examine it in all its bearings, and follow it out into all its consequences. It is not for us to hope and to wait, and to praise caution, and to deprecate gloomy views, and to trust things may turn out better than we expect, and to lull our apprehensions by dreaming about "excellent men," and "minor points," and "peace and good order,"

"Non hoc ista sibi tempus spectacula poscit."

If Churchmen must submit to a union with dissenters and latitudinarians, they should at least do so with their eyes open. If they must make up their minds to concession, they should at least see clearly what they can concede legally and without impiety; what parts of their system they may relinquish, and what they must maintain at all costs. For whatever sacrifices we may be prepared to make for peace and good order, we must sacrifice even these for the Church of Christ.

The practical question, then, on which we have to decide, is this:-Is it possible so to remodify our Church system as to propitiate the dissenting and latitudinarian parties? and if so, have we a right

to do this? Nor do I doubt that most persons will feel themselves prepared with a ready answer to both these questions. It seems to be generally assumed that such a reconciliation would be no hard matter; that the worst we have to fear is such a rearrangement of Church property as should render the higher clergy less obnoxious to envy, and perhaps lower the body generally as a caste of society. This seems to be the very worst fear of the most apprehensive persons; and to all this it seems to be admitted that we might consent without a compromise of principle.

But let the good persons, who satisfy themselves so easily, but open their eyes a little wider. Let them not look forward so many moves; but observe more closely how things stand at present. Let them not flatter themselves that the changes about which they deliberate are future and distant. They are present,-nay, past. A great change has taken place already in the constitution of the Church of England,—a change which affects her welfare not remotely or virtually, but actually and at once. Whenever it was that the Church of England lost her exclusive supremacy in the councils of this nation, then, at that very instant, a change took place in her internal constitution-a change, too, of no ordinary magnitude or importance, but a downright Revolution. A trust, which had been reposed by our Apostolical predecessors on a power internal to the Church, was then allowed to devolve upon aliens; and that, too, in a matter of

the very highest consequence, virtually affecting her well-being, perhaps even her existence as a visible society.

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As long as the governing power was restricted, either by law or in fact, to persons in communion with the Church, so long it was safe and proper to confide to that power the nomination of our ecclesiastical superiors. But now, that neither law secures to us such a government, nor does the existing state of things permit us ever again to hope for it, the question assumes a very altered aspect. Quel sera la garantie de leur choix ?" says one of the able writers of the "Avenir," under circumstances very similar to our own. Quel sera en effet pour nous la garantie de leur choix? Depuis que la religion Catholique n'est plus la religion de la Patrie, les Ministres d'état sont et doivent étre dans une indifférence légale à notre egard est-ce leur indifférence qui sera notre garantie? Ils sont laics, ils peuvent étre Protestants, Juifs, Athées : est-ce leur conscience qui sera notre garantie? Ils sont choisis dans les rangs d'une société imbue d'un préjugé opiniatré contre nous: est-ce leur préjugé qui sera notre garantie? Ils régnent enfin depuis quatre mois est-ce leur passé qui sera notre garantie ?"

So too with us, according to the wretched principles which it is supposed impossible any longer to withstand. His Majesty's Ministers, in future must be, and ought to be, at least in their public capacity, detached from religious parties,—dans une indiffé

VOL. I.

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