heathenism in a Christian land; and in this struggle dissenters long bore the foremost part. They were at once preachers and missionaries. Their work prospered, and in combating ignorance and sin, they grew into formidable rivals of the church. The old schisms of the Reformation had never lost their vitality. There had been prosecution enough to alienate and provoke nonconformists: but not enough to repress them. And when they started on a new career in the last century, they enjoyed toleration. The doctrines for which many had formerly suffered were now freely preached, and found crowds of new disciples. At the same time, freedom of worship and discussion favored the growth of other diversities of faith, ceremonial, and discipline.

The later history of dissent, of its rapid growth and development, its marvellous activity and resources, Statistics of is to be read in its statistics. The church in ex- dissent. tending her ministrations had been aided by the state, and by the liberality of her wealthy flocks. Dissent received no succor or encouragement from the state; and its disciples were generally drawn from the less opulent classes of society. Yet what has it done for the religious instruction of the people? In 1801, the Wesleyans had 825 chapels or places of worship in 1851, they had the extraordinary number of 11,007, with sittings for 2,194,298 persons! The original connection alone numbered 1034 ministers, and upwards of 13,000 lay or local preachers. In 1801, the Independents had 914 chapels: in 1851, they had 3244, with sittings for 1,067,760 members. In 1801, the Baptists had 652 places of worship in 1851, they had 2789, with sittings for 752,346. And numerous other religious denominations swelled the ranks of Protestant dissent.

The Roman Catholics,- forming a comparatively small body, have yet increased of late years in numbers and activity. Their chapels grew from 346 in 1824, to 574 in 1851, with accommodation for 186,111 persons. Between 1841 and 1853 their religious houses were multiplied from

17 to 88; and their priests from 557 to 875. Their flocks have naturally been enlarged by considerable numbers of Irish and foreigners who have settled, with their increasing families, in the metropolis and other large towns.

Statistics of places of worship.

For the population of England and Wales, amounting in 1851 to 17,927,609, there were 34,467 places of worship, of which 14,077 belonged to the church of England. Accommodation was provided for 9,467,738 persons, of whom 4,922,412 were in the establishment. On the 30th of March, 4,428,338 attended morning service, of whom 2,371,732 were members of the church.1 Hence it has been computed that there were 7,546,948 members of the establishment habitually attending religious worship; and 4,466,266 nominal members rarely, if ever, attending the services of their church. These two classes united, formed about 67 per cent. of the population. The same computation reckoned 2,264,324 Wesleyans, and 610,786 Roman Catholics.2 The clergy of the established church numbered 17,320: ministers of other communions, 6405.3 So vast an increase of dissent has seriously compromised the position of the church as a national establishment. Nearly one third of the present generation have grown up out of her communion. But her power is yet dominant. She holds her proud position in the state and society: she commands the parochial organization of the country: she has the largest share in the education of the people; and she has long been straining every nerve to

Relations of the church to dissent.

4

1 Census of Great Britain, 1851, Religious Worship. The progressive increase of dissent is curiously illustrated by a return of temporary and permanent places of worship registered in decennial periods. - Parl. Paper, 1853, No. 156.

2 Dr. Hume's Ev. before Lords' Co. on Church Rates, 1859, Q. 1291, and map. Independents and Baptists together are set down as 9 per cent., and other sects 63 on the population.

8 Census 1851: occupations, table 27.

4 In 1860 she received about 77 per cent. of the education grant from the Privy Council; and of 1,549,312 pupils in day-schools, she had no less than 1,187,086; while of Sunday-school pupils dissenters had a majority of

extend her influence. The traditions and sentiment of the nation are on her side. And while she comprises a united body of faithful members, dissenters are divided into upwards of one hundred different sects, or congregations, without sympathy or cohesion, and differing in doctrines, polity and forms of worship. Sects, not bound by subscription to any articles of faith, have been rent asunder by schisms. The Wesleyans have been broken up into nine divisions:1 the Baptists into five.2 These discordant elements of dissent have often been united in opposition to the church, for the redress of grievances common to them all. But every act of toleration and justice, on the part of the state, has tended to dissolve the combination. The odium of bad laws weighed heavily upon the church; and her position has been strengthened by the reversal of a mistaken policy. Nor has the church just cause of apprehension from any general sentiment of hostility on the part of Protestant nonconformists. Numbers frequent her services, and are still married at her altars. The Wesleyans, dwelling just outside her gates, are friends and neighbors, rather than adversaries. The most formidable and aggressive of her opponents are the Independents. With them the "voluntary principle" in religion is a primary article of faith. They condemn all church establishments; and the Church of England is the foremost example to be denounced and assailed.

3

Relations of

to Parlia

Whatever the future destinies of the church, the gravest reflections arise out of the later development of the Reformation. The church was then united the church to the state. Her convocation, originally depen- ment. 200,000.-Rep. of Education Com., 1861, p. 593, 594; Bishop of London's Charge, 1862, p. 35.

1 The Original Connection, New Connection, Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians, Wesleyan Methodist Association, Independent Methodists, Wesleyan Reformers, Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, and Countess of Huntingdon's Connection.

2 General, Particular, Seventh-day, Scotch, New Connection General. 3 Eighty per cent. of all marriages are celebrated by the church. Rep. of Registrar Gen., 1862, p. viii.

dent, has since lost all but a nominal place in the ecclesiastical polity of the realm. And what have become the component parts of the legislature, which directs the government, discipline, revenues, nay even the doctrines, of the church? The Commons, who have attained a dominant authority, are representatives of England, one third nonconformist, of Presbyterian Scotland, and of Catholic Ireland. In the union of church and state no such anomaly had been foreseen; yet has it been the natural consequence of the Reformation, followed by the consolidation of these realms and the inevitable recognition of religious liberty in a free state.

dissent upon

However painful the history of religious schisms and conInfluence of flicts, they have not been without countervailing political uses. They have extended religious instruction, liberty. and favored political liberty. If the church and dissenters, united, have been unequal to meet the spiritual needs of this populous land, — what could the church, alone and unaided, have accomplished? Even if the resources

of dissent had been placed in her hands, rivalry would have been wanting, which has stimulated the zeal of both. Liberty owes much to schism. It brought down the high prerogatives of the Tudors and Stuarts; and in later times, has been a powerful auxiliary in many popular movements. The undivided power of the church, united to that of the crown and aristocracy, might have proved too strong for the people. But while she was weakened by dissent, a popular party was growing up, opposed to the close political organization with which she was associated. This party was naturally joined by dissenters; and they fought side by side in the long struggle for civil and religious liberty.

The church and dissenters, generally opposed on political questions affecting religion, have been prompt to The Papal aggression, make common cause against the church of Rome. The same strong spirit of Protestantism which united them in resistance to James II. and his House, has since brought them together on other occasions. Dissenters,

1850.

while seeking justice for themselves, had been no friends to Catholic emancipation; and were far more hostile than churchmen to the endowment of Maynooth. And in 1851, they joined the church in resenting an aggressive movement of the Pope, which was felt to be an insult to the Protestant people of England.

For some time irritation had been growing, in the popular mind, against the church of Rome. The activity of the priesthood was everywhere apparent. Chapels were built, and religious houses founded.2 A Catholic cathedral was erected in London. Sisters of mercy, in monastic robes, offended the eyes of Protestants. Tales of secret proselytism abounded. No family was believed to be safe from the designs of priests and Jesuits. Protestant heiresses had taken the veil, and endowed convents: wives of Protestant nobles and gentlemen had secretly renounced the faith in which their marriage vows were given: fathers, at the point of death, had disinherited their own flesh and blood, to satisfy the extortion of confessors. Young men at Oxford, in training for the church, had been perverted to Romanism. At the same time, in the church herself, the tractarian, or high church clergy, were reverting to ceremonies associated with that faith; and several had been gained over to the church of Rome. While Protestants, alarmed by these symptoms, were disposed to over-estimate their significance, the ultramontane party among the Catholics, encouraged by a trifling and illusory success, conceived the extravagant design of reclaiming Protestant England to the fold of the Catholic church.

In September, 1850, Pope Pius IX., persuaded that the time had come for asserting his ancient pretensions The Pope's within this realm, published a brief, providing for brief, 1850. the ecclesiastical government of England. Hitherto the church of Rome in England had been superintended by eight vicars apostolic; but now the Pope, considering the "already large number of Catholics," and "how the hindrances which 2 See supra, p. 419.

1 See infra, p. 455.