of her dignity, as to reject this amalgamation, it would be no bar to the proceedings on this side of the channel. For we quite concur in our author's statements, that "no member of our Anglican Church, who fully understands her constitution, and is acquainted with her history, can deny that her position, without a Convocation, in which alone she can authoritatively speak, is most anomalous ;" and that "it is most unlikely that any measure would be carried there which would not commend itself to the judgment of all unprejudiced men, as well among the laity as among the clergy. At all events, let the experiment be tried; let the Convocation be assembled, and let some subject be proposed for deliberation." But we would add, let that subject be the reform of the canons--a boon so often sought, and so often missed by some unhappy misadventure. And if the experiment should succeed-if it should be found that the proceedings were orderly and the result satisfactory—satisfactory, that is, to the main body of the Church, whatever may be the discontents and murmurs of some misjudging and misinformed cavillers-a nuisance from which no society is exemptthen there would be great encouragement to proceed in due time with those other measures of improvement which Mr. Lathbury has proposed for consideration, in addition to some already noticed. After assuming, very justly, that no alterations in the liturgy or articles would be attempted, or wished, notwithstanding the variety of sentiments in some particulars, he proceeds to notice certain defects: one is the want of an authorized service for the consecration of churches and churchyards: another is the deficiency of power in the bishops to enforce obedience to the rubrics and canons, which will be the more necessary when those canons shall have been recast into a form which may command obedience: thirdly, he would have the office of suffragan bishops revived-an office already recognised both by the canons and by the law; for the bishop of any diocese may by law (16 Henry VIII.) recommend two persons to the Crown, for the selection of one to act as his coadjutor. When the infirmities of old age or weakness of mind render a bishop unfit for the discharge of his duties, it is but right that provision should be made for the exercise of his functions, without throwing the burthen upon one of those who have already enough, and more than enough to do, each in his own diocese. And since that necessity is not likely to occur very frequently, the required provision may be made with peculiar facility at the present period, when the Colonial Episcopate is beginning to send home some of those who, having terminated their prescribed career, are at length escaping from the dangers of an

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ungenial climate, and, reinvigorated by their native air, may afford most effective assistance to their brethren, with benefit to themselves and with advantage to their country. Only it would be necessary to legalise some amount of remuneration from the revenues of the assisted see.

But the defect upon which he principally insists, is the want of an authorized psalmody; and certainly it is a fact highly inconsistent with our boasted uniformity, that scarcely two towns

we had almost said scarcely two parishes are to be found from one end of the country to the other, in which a diversity of practice does not prevail in this particular. Every Church almost has its own collection of psalms and hymns, and the congregational plan has almost superseded the liturgical system of the Church. It is true that the surrender of all these favourite selections implies no small degree of self-devotion to the cause of ecclesiastical unity; but not more than may fairly be expected from conscientious teachers of religion, when the public good demands it. It is not a matter of trifling moment; for hymns inculcate doctrines; and it is not to be endured that the doctrines of the Church should be abandoned to the mercy of wrongheaded, or fanciful, or injudicious persons, who care not to overleap the barriers of the liturgy and articles. If, however, it should be deemed expedient to allow of a greater latitude in this part of the service than in any other, at least an injunction should be laid on the rural deans, to bring to the knowledge of their respective diocesans, through the intervention of the archdeacon, every case of dissatisfaction arising from that source among the members of any congregation, in order that the book may be submitted to the censure of the bishop and receive his final award. If, contrary to expectation, the experiment should fail-if business should be impeded by wilfulness, and deliberation turned into wrangling, still the ruling powers have the remedy in their own hands; for they can calm the rising waves at the first appearance of danger, and paralyze the overactivity of an intractable synod, and extinguish at once the flames of a reckless ambition and the blighted hopes of the Church, and reduce her for ever to the same useless, torpid state of unconsciousness in which she is now entranced, by an instant prorogation. But why should it fail? Is publicity the bugbear that scares those who are in authority? Is fear of the press the obstacle, because a portion of it is violent or hostile? Is it feared that the stings of satire would be intolerable, and the scandal greater than the advantage? Nay, but that is the best security that all the proceedings would be conducted with sobriety, and prudence, and moderation; and happily the most

influential and respectable part of the press is ranged under the same banners, and would gladly lend its co-operation to do justice to the Church; there is talent enough among the clergy to raise them above the fear of contempt, and to blunt the edge of the keenest weapons that Dissent or impiety could aim at them. Those, therefore, to whose situation it belongs to counsel the Queen to assemble the Convocation would achieve for themselves a monument more durable than brass, by reinstating the Church in its true position-a monument of gratitude in the hearts of her sons "to the last syllable of recorded time." At least, let the experiment be made.

ART. II.--A Plea for National Holydays. By Lord JOHN MANNERS, M. P. Second Edition. London: Painter.

"There is no doubt that constant toil and no pleasure constitute a fertile cause of standing, social, and political discontent.”—Spectator, 1843.

"The abuse springs from the non-use."

LORD JOHN MANNERS, p. 11.

THE pamphlet written by Lord John Manners is exceedingly well timed, although it be but as a pellet of bread shot against a stone wall. Anything that opposes a sin of the age, however huge and extended that sin may be, is certainly well timed; and a sling and a stone, used in right good earnest, may bring to the ground the proudest giant. That Lord John Manners has the welfare of the peasantry ardently in his heart, no man will deny and this is not the first action, or the first publication, by which he has shown his interest and forwardness in so humane and generous a cause. For it will be remembered, how benevolently his lordship, in times of severest distress, went voluntarily among the poorest classes in Bolton and other manufacturing towns, relieving the poor as far as he could, and what was of first importance, as a member of Parliament, acquainting himself with the miseries of their unfortunate condition. And then, from his seat in Parliament, he did bear testimony, both to their sufferings and the fortitude with which they nobly bore those sufferings, and thus does his lordship stand well before the country for feelings of self-denial and humanity. In addition, his lordship has published a volume of poems replete with kind and manly sentiments, and no one, with more propriety, might adopt to himself the exquisitely tender lines of an elder poet— "To thee, Humanity, still true, I'll wish the good I cannot do, And give the wretch that passes by A soothing word-a tear-a sigh!"

For his lordship has done, and doubtless will do, all that a private individual can accomplish; but, alas! national afflictions and distresses must enlist on their behalf the national mind.

His lordship has now interested himself in one of the most difficult questions which can well concern the people of this country-namely, the amusement of the people. His lordship says a great many true things when he descants on such subjects as the iniquitous amassing of wealth, the recreations of the rich, carelessness in regard to the poor, and the misery and moroseness that has crept in upon them in lieu of the joyousness that once sent them forth to claim and appreciate a merry holyday. But his lordship, perhaps, falls much into the same error as other people whom he describes as those who would at once admit, as a general principle, the advantage of holydays and public deversions for the people-it is only when they are requested to put their general principle into particular practice, that they discover insuperable objections-some from a regard to the pecuniary interest of the people-some from a respect to the sober reserve of the national character! These are not the only difficulties, for a very main one (as noticed, but hardly believed in by his lordship) is derived from the general character of the people themselves; a difficulty which shall be illustrated, and one which it is to be hoped is by no means insurmountable, but rather caused by the absence of that very institution which Lord John Manners would wish to establish.

These, then, are the difficulties which environ the question concerning the amusements of the people, and these are they which must arise in every man's mind when considering the subject, whether they had been noticed or not by Lord John Manners. The remedy proposed by his Lordship, and which these difficulties tend to impede-the remedy for the prevention of overworking the humbler classes of this country, consists in a due observance of the holydays of the Church, as once practised by "Catholic Europe, England included, till nearly the middle of the seventeenth century." (p. 10).

Now let the difficulties in the way of restoring the old holydays, as well as the restoration of the holy days, be considered in due order.

First, as regards the money argument. "Some, from a regard to the pecuniary interest of the people," would rather not see holydays encouraged. It appears, by Lord John's subsequent argument, that by the term "people," he means both masters and men. He says, in regard to the former, very nobly,

"So long, perhaps, as such strange inconsistencies degrade our private mercantile adventures, and over public legislative enactmentsso long as the spirit and conduct of the age is at once so profuse and so niggard-so generous, yet so sparing-so democratic, and yet so careless of the poor-so long it may be deemed a sufficient reply to any proposals for shortening the hours of factory labour, or reviving holydays and sports among the people, to say, We are too poor; time is money, and we cannot afford it.'

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And in regard to the latter, his lordship speaks in a spirit too Christian, it must be feared, for the age

"Nor shall I be easily convinced, that if the relations between cmployer and employed are what they ought to be in a Christian country, and what they certainly were once in this, the observance of a score of holydays during the year would press upon the latter's means of support.'

Now, in both cases, this is a question rather of humanity than profit, for of what consideration is profit when the moral laws of humanity are violated? If the master's income, or the national wealth, as both are derived from the labour of the people, should be extended by an additional working of the latter, as plainly proved by evidence collected under the Factory Commission of Enquiry and other authoritative sources, to their injury-could such a course be recommended, or be justified, before God or man ? Are we to build up wealth on the premature decay and early graves of our fellow-creatures, every one of the meanest of whom is of equal importance with the richest and highest? Apply the matter simply to an individual case, and a real occurrence shall be stated. The writer of this, as a clergyman, was once called on to visit a mechanic who was suffering acutely. It so happened, that he arrived in the very nick of time to save the poor man's life, by the administration of a certain remedy to the climax of his disorder. This won him the affection of the mechanic, and no human being could have been more grateful. The doctors had previously told this man that if he persisted in following his trade (that of a brass turner) he could not possibly live two years, and probably not a quarter of that time. The clergyman took advantage of the kindly feeling excited in the man's breast, and reasoned with him on the necessity of relinquishing his trade, especially since he had said that he could follow another which would be of less value, but of a more healthy kind. The man was hard to convince he thought of his wife and family, &c., but still the question resolved itself in this-return to your trade and live two years at the very utmost on a larger sum; or, follow another trade of lesser value, but with the prospect of longer