duce, and doubtless did effect, a powerful impression on the public

mind.

The Rev. Richard Yates, in a letter to Lord Liverpool, under the expressive title, "The Church in Danger," shows, by diligent, and, as far as we can judge, accurate research," that within a circuit of about eight miles around the city of London, by the present distribution and circumstances of the parishes, after allowing to each church a proportion more than sufficient to fill it, and quite if not more than equal to the parochial care of the clergy at present allotted to the charge, there is found to remain a surplus population of nine hundred and fifty-three thousand, excluded from the benefits and advantages of participating in the instructive public worship and pastoral superintendence of the established church. This number exceeds (by upwards of 6,000), the entire population of the nine counties-Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Dorsetshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, and Cambridgeshire, containing sixteen hundred and fifty-two parish churches. If we suppose the surplus population of the metropolis district just noticed, to be so distributed as actually to occupy the entire space of these nine counties, and to be left without a church, without a minister, without any instruction for either adults or children, without any divine worship, without any parochial communion with the established religion of the state; your Lordship certainly will be of opinion, that such a circumstance would attract great attention, and excite a proportionate astonishment and alarm."

don Association for extending the knowledge of the Gospel in the Metropolis, by the erections or purchase of places of worship in the Congregational connection, and though from the truly unsectarian feelings of our body in London, which approximates in our judgment to culpable apathy, that society maintained but a transient existence, yet a conviction was produced by that discourse amongst dissenters that something must be done for the guilty popu lation of our own city.

Mr. Yates was heard, as he desired, in the high places of the earth, and parliamentary grants to the amount of ONE MILLION AND A HALF of public money were voted for the erection of new churches, which munificent supply was increased by the establishment of the Society for building or enlarging Churches, &c. under the appropriate patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Now commenced the system which is to save the church; and architects, builders and speculators of all orders were in motion to render this "godsend," as Lord Goderich called it, available for that noble design. The metropolis had assigned to it a large portion of the grant for the erection of new churches, and as they were for the religion of the state, it was in course agreed, that they should be stately. Vast sums have therefore been lavished on single buildings, which appear more like heathen than Christian temples. But then they have become fashionable resorts, their porticos are carriage-thronged, and the staunch supporters of "Church and King," find the pomp and circumstance in perfect accordance with their views of what religion should be; for as Geoffrey Crayon observes, they connect the idea of devotion and loyalty, consider the Deity somehow or other of the government party,

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head of this article, felt as a subordinate clergyman, that he was not at liberty to propose any plans of operation, for after statements sufficient to excite every devoted Christian to active effort, he closes his tract by recommending humiliation and prayer! We deeply feel the importance of that suggestion, and we fervently wish it may be received as it deserves; but we are persuaded, that Mr. Stewart possesses too much Christian zeal, and understands too well the connection between prayer and labour, not to have combined them, had he not felt that he and his devoted brethren are, to a great extent, embarrassed by their own system.

It therefore appears to us, that as things exist at present, the bulk of the population in our great towns, can alone be brought to submit to the authority of Christ by dissenting plans, and we might add, by dissenting agency too. Our churches recognize the sacred obligation of individual devotedness to the cause of piety and benevolence, and consequently, in various ways, train up their members to engage in this spiritual warfare; and thus, whilst our bre thren of the establishment appear in the field, both for number and splendour like the multitudinous and glittering hosts of the East, and too often like them betray the want of that holy enthusiasm, moral courage, and concentration of energy, which can alone secure the victory; our little bands, like that of Gideon, are proved, attached, devoted, and therefore, by the blessing of God, effective. We say not this boastingly, but state a fact, which it is evident Dr. Southey perceived, when writing his life of Wesley, and which led him into some speculations on the value of such an agency to the National Church.

It is not therefore surprising, that since the attention of the

Christian public has been directed to the moral condition of the metropolis, that various attempts have been made to combine the experienced labourers, to whom we refer in one benevolent effort on behalf of its poor neglected population. The committee of the Home Missionary Society addressed a circular letter, in the early part of the year 1822, to the dissenting ministers of London, stating, that as they had reason to conclude that there are many thousands of the lower classes of society in the metropolis and its environs, who are in the most ignorant, degraded, and miserable condition, they felt themselves under a solemn obligation to make some vigorous efforts to promote their moral and spiritual improvement. This address led to a conference, which, however, terminated without any organized effort to meet the case. An attempt was then made to establish the "London Evangelical Society for promoting Religion and Morality in all parts of the Metropolis;" but from reasons which we need not protract this article to explain, it proved abortive. Then a few individuals, who are known to form societies and publish magazines with greater facility than Napoleon decreed constitutions and manufactured kings, united to establish the City Missionary Society, and in the summer of 1824, at a school-room in White's Grounds, Horselydown, this institution was formed, under the presidency of the Rev. G. C. Smith, of Penzance, in the county of Cornwall, to diffuse religious knowledge amongst the neglected and destitute inhabitants of London, in the county of Middlesex. A small pamphlet or two, we believe, were published, and sundry other expenses incurred, which at the end of six months brought this association into hopeless circumstances. Overtures were then made to several dissenting minis

ters and gentlemen to save this infant society from early dissolution. Their reply was frank and explicit :-we do not wish to unite with your Society, but if you cannot carry it forward to usefulness, abandon it, and we will form another, but we cannot approve of two Societies for the same object, as the time and liberality of the Christian public in London are already too much divided amidst the number of claimants thereon. In March, 1825, the City Missionary Society was consequently dissolved, by the formal acts of its own committee, and the plans of the Society for promoting Christian Instruction in London and its Vicinity having been drawn up with great care, were printed and extensively circulated; its officers were appointed, and a public meeting to recognize its establishment, was announced by printed placards, throughout the town, for Tuesday Evening, the 7th of June; when lo, the City Missionary Society rises, like another Phoenix, from its ashes, and placards appear by the side of the former, announcing a public meeting for Thursday Evening, the 9th of June, under the conduct and direction of the same individuals, who only three months before had been parties to its dissolution! We have been thus minute in detailing these circumstances, that our readers may judge with whom the fault lies, as doubtless a fault it is, of distracting public attention by the establishing of two societies for the same object. As, however, the metropolis is a vast field, far too extensive for the Christian Instruction Society, with its present limited financial means, effectually to cultivate, the existence of a second or a third society would not be a serious evil, were their agency and their plans adapted, under the Divine blessing, to be useful. We are therefore compelled, as we desire to see the work of moral and religious imN. S. No. 32.

provement advance in this city, to refer plainly to these points, and whilst we disclaim all intention of wounding the mind of the humblest Christian associated in this benevolent attempt, yet we feel it to be our duty plainly to state the relative claims of the institutions before us.

To every reflecting mind, it must appear evident, that London presents a peculiar and most responsible sphere of usefulness, which requires the utmost circumspection in the choice of agents, and in the adaptation of means to the circumstances of its inhabitants. It is altogether distinct from rural districts, for in the villages of our country, up to the present hour, you may gauge the intelligence of the peasantry, and find that a man of very limited information and humble intellect may soon become an oracle amongst them; but in London, and other great towns, are found minds of unusual vigour, and considerable cultivation, in the most obscure abodes. Thus, the agents of the City Missionary Society find, at the Potteries in Kensington, "two people of great mental energy, disciples of Tom Paine, and possessing an epitome of his politics and theology. Another woman, who was brought up as a gentlewoman, who speaks several languages, and is even a proficient in Hebrew, was discovered there, abandoned to filth and vice." Now we have looked with some anxiety through their Report, &c. to learn who were the agents intrusted by this Society, to defend and explain Christianity, under such interesting and anxious circumstances; but we can find no satisfactory answer; there is not a rule which describes the qualification or the characters of these missionaries; and we may add, there is not a name on the committee which inspires us with confidence on the subject; for aught that appears to the contrary,

3 M

"Who will may preach and what they will;"

and it is more than probable, that the learned pauper, who was found amongst the pigsties of Kensington, was amused to witness an assault upon the head of poor Priscian, which was intended for the head of Tom Paine. It is not, however, for grammatical precision, but for the truth itself that we are alarmed, when we see the agents of this City Missionary Society in contact with infidelity; for unless their arguments against it are more cogent and effective than their strictures upon it in the Report of their Committee before us, we will venture to predict, that they will never fill the skin of that monster, "with barbed irons, or his head with fishes' spears. He will account their darts as stubble, and laugh at the shaking of their spear;"

"--Leviathan is not so tamed!"

The proceedings of the Christian Instruction Society are of a very different order. Feeling that the question of agency was of vital importance, the founders of that Institution have made the following provision in their 6th rule, which is calculated to secure an effective and respectable class of labourers in this vast field of Chris

invective, that Institution has called forth sound argument; and beside two Courses of Lectures, on the evidences of Christianity, delivered to mechanics, by some of the most eloquent and able dissenting ministers in the metropolis, and which were heard by large and most interesting audiences, the committee of the Christian Instruction Society obtained, for publication, the learned and invaluable tract, the second edition of which appears at the head of this article, and which, proceeding from the pen of one whose sound judgment and extensive learning are deservedly acknowledged in the national universities, has inflicted a wound upon the impudent leader of the infidel camp, which he immediately felt, and from which, we know, he at once recoiled, like a scotched snake.

In looking into the Report of the City Missionary Society, we discover no traces of a system of stated domiciliary visitation of the Poor, which is so absolutely necessary to win their confidence, and gain access to their hearts. Flying visits, with all the irregularity of bush-fighting, may, perchance, do good, but it is the steady continuance in "well doing," which, like a continued dripping, can alone be expected to produce an impression upon stony hearts.

Here, again, we perceive the superiority of the plans of the Christian Instruction Society. It appears from their last Report," that

ELEVEN THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FAMILIES are under stated visitation, which may be reasonably computed, to contain not less than from fifty to sixty thousand individuals!" These pass under the review of Christian visitors, of both sexes, twice a month:-Are they sick? medicine and pecuniary relief are frequently afforded. Are their children uneducated? they are introduced to