unnecessary mixture of these earthly elements with the internal government of our Church.

In dismissing this topic, then, for the present, I must repeat the hope before expressed, that long consideration and frequent discussion will in this, as in many other important legislative measures, have had the effect of ultimately improving them. It certainly has led to a deeper inquiry into the principles of Church government, and a clearer insight into its original character, than before prevailed among the educated classes; and it is with no disrespectful feeling towards the lay practitioners in our Courts if I observe, by way of caution, that men naturally become enamoured of their art-that they are prone to magnify technical skill, and to lose sight of the end in their eager study of the meansthat by long habit the legal merits supersede the moral character of a case in their contemplation-and that a long continued course even of successful practice requires to be corrected from time to time, like the mariner's reckoning upon the great ocean, by a reference to those heavenly guides which are appointed to rule the day and the night in this our pilgrimage upon earth.

Of the other legislative measures affecting the National Church I shall speak very briefly.

The law for the commutation of tithes appears to

operate as beneficially, and to proceed as amicably, as its warmest advocates ever anticipated. Much of this undoubtedly is owing to the deliberate manner, and even to the long delay, under which the measure was finally matured; for it gave an opportunity for correcting prejudices, and for the subsidence of those agitated feelings, or rather of those fierce and ungovernable passions, which accompanied the first stages of the measure, and which almost always, more or less, blind men's judgment, not only to the rights of others, but to their own real interests. It is well too, that the administration of this law has been committed to upright, judicious, and experienced men, who have, I believe, discharged, and who continue to discharge the delicate trust confided to them with strict impartiality, and with a sincere regard to the interests of the Church. To you, my reverend brethren, it is hardly necessary for me to observe, that you are bound to act as Trustees and Guardians for your successors, not less than as men seeking the good will of those among whom you live. That you are disposed, and that you feel it your duty to let your moderation in this, as in all other transactions, be known unto all men, I am well assured. Yet you will allow me to remind you, that the good will of men is dearly purchased, if it lead an Incumbent to sacrifice the future interests of the benefice he holds, of which interests he and not his ecclesiastical superior is the best judge. The Bishop's sanction will be no acquittance of the

Incumbent's conscience, if he knowingly surrenders, either to the favour of a patron, or to the love of popularity, the fair and equitable claims of those who are to succeed him.

On the subject of National Education happily no law has been proposed-for I cannot but think, after the agitation of this subject which took place in Parliament, and the proceedings of Government connected with it, that any legislative measure that might have been proposed would have been erroneous and mischievous-grounded upon false and imperfect views inconsistent with that fundamental principle, which we cherish as a great national blessing, the union of the Church with the State-and in its effects detrimental to the cause of true religion, as well as to the permanent interests of the nation, Much praise, therefore, and warm thanks are due to those distinguished men, chiefly of our own order, who boldly withstood an innovation which threatened to undermine the very principles upon which the Constitution of this country is based. The power, indeed, was not so formidable, the design was not so manifest, the mischief apprehended was not of so deep and fatal a character, as that which in the reign of James the Second received its death-blow, through the courage of those Bishops who then denounced the treacherous purpose of the Monarch, and boldly stopped its execution. But the cause was

of a similar kind, the promptitude and the vigour of the resistance was the same. And it affords the strongest assurance, that, while the Church retains a place for her representatives in Parliament, a vigilant eye will be kept on all such encroachments; and that the nation will never be taken unawares by any measures, however artfully devised and plausibly recommended, in order to procure the adherence of those who are enemies to the Established Church.

That some expedients are wanting to carry into full effect the admirable plan of the National Society, long ago digested and put in action, for the education of the poor I do not deny-and that the public mind required to be roused to a just sense of the importance of that duty, which had through time become neglected, as the best things are apt to do when the charm of novelty is over. But those who are old enough to remember the original formation and first operations of that Society, the universal ardour which was kindled throughout the kingdom, the active co-operation of the Clergy in the work, the institution of a central board and a central school in London, the building of schools by means of private subscription and of grants from the Society in all populous places, and the patronage which parochial schools simultaneously received from the Clergy and their wealthy neighbours; who remember, moreover, the introduction of a system of teaching, which not only made the simplest machinery applicable to

almost any extent of work, but which carried into effect, wherever a school was well superintended, that just and beautiful maxim, qui docet discit,—whoever, I say, recals to his memory the stir and activity which pervaded every corner of the kingdom at that time, of which the evidence still exists in the multiplication of schools for the children of the poor, must admit that the recent movement is no new scheme, and that its promoters have no right to reflect upon the negligence or supineness of the preceding age. That the work is incomplete, that it does not realize all the anticipations which its authors and earliest supporters formed, is perfectly true; but in saying this, I class it only with every other benevolent scheme which requires the steady, active, unremitting co-operation and vigilance of many disinterested persons through a long course of years.

The history of all plans of this kind is nearly the same. After a few years the zeal abates, the first movers drop off, and are not succeeded by others equally active, and vigilant, and persevering. To continue and to preserve is not so animating a task as to found and to create. The institution is left more and more to its own rules and system. But it is hardly necessary for me to observe, that rules and systems will never of themselves perpetuate any institution-will never maintain it in health and vigour, however wisely framed. There must be a living soul breathed into them-a principle of energy, in