efficient, and by irreligious men as being ridiculous. The weakness betrayed by his Grace in the conduct of this bill, as well as in the tithe bill, and other measures connected with the interests of the church, is a current theme of lamentation throughout the country; except either by those who have interests to serve, or those who wish to prevent effectual reform, lest reform should extinguish their hopes of ruin. We trust that in the House of Commons the real friends of the Church, who love her from religious motives, will endeavour to rescue the bill from the attacks of infidels and radicals on the one hand, and the interested conservators of loaves and fishes on the other, and engraft on it a salutary enactment, tied down by well-defined rules, as to what circumstances of contiguity, population, and value, shall be permitted to authorize the holding of a second living. As to making the test of learning or good conduct a qualification for holding two livings, whatever might be its merit when the canons were framed, it is absurd under the circumstances of the present day. The regulations which were proposed in a paper circulated in the House of Lords, and in a petition about to be presented to the House of Commons, were to prohibit pluralities, where the united population of the two livings exceeds 1500; the united value 400%.; and the distance is greater than will allow of the pastoral services of the incumbent in both

parishes. From the selfish resistance offered to these very reasonable suggestions, and the conduct of some who ought to have supported them, we begin to doubt whether it had not been better to have gone to the root of the matter at once, and prayed for the abolition of pluralities altogether; accompanied with measures, easily devised, for the augmentation of inadequate benefices (which will never be effected while pluralities are allowed), and the junction of small contiguous ones, of course without prejudice to the present incumbents. There is no practical difficulty in the way of such a plan, except timid scruple or interested opposition; and if these fears or machinations are not overruled, and a salutary measure devised, the church will not long retain its yet existing hold upon the feelings of the nation. Many excellent friends of the church were anxious to have petitioned the House of Lords upon the subject, but refrained, hoping that the bill might be amended without the danger and excitement of popular discussion. It may even yet be desirable quietly and temperately to petition the House of Commons; but there is now neither hope or fear of the bill's passing without discussion. So far as it is really an improvement on the existing state of the law, many well-judging men, who wish it had been better, have feared hazarding

it altogether by raising objections to certain of its provisions; but our consolation in this case would be, that a far more efficient bill-such is the light that has been thrown upon the whole question-would without doubt be brought in, either by the Right Reverend bench itself, or by some friend of the church in the House of Commons; so that, if we lose a few months in time, we shall be gainers in quality. We earnestly wish that Dr. Lushington, who we understand has undertaken its management in the House of Commons, would bring his powerful mind to bear upon the whole subject, and suggest such amendments as may at once and for ever blot out from our church the stain of pluralities, and give to every parish in the kingdom a fairly remunerated resident incumbent. The great majority of the clergy, not a few of the prelacy, and the whole mass of the community, with the exception of those who have private interests to serve, would bless and venerate him for such a measure; and if he value a still higher reward, he would find it in the prospect of much spiritual and enduring benefit to the present and future generations.

We have a most distressing statement to make respecting the anti-slavery question. We need not recapitulate to our readers the particulars respecting the abolition of the slave trade; the long and dreary interval which succeeded, during which the fetters of the slave only became more firmly rivetted, and his sorrows more piercing; the ray of hope which broke in when, in 1823, the abolitionists at length gained so far a triumph over sordid interest and venal opposition as to induce Government and Parliament to consider the subject; the subsequent nine long years during which the West-Indian party, by every possible stratagem that cunning could devise or gold execute, has opposed the dictates of justice, sound policy, and the united voice of the country, and with such success that all that could be done by the friends of humanity and religion was little more than to keep the question alive; while this powerful party, secure in the bribery of newspapers and magazines, the purchase of rotten boroughs, and multiplied arts of parliamentary stratagem, have held at bay both the government and the country, and secured their oppressed bondsmen in their grasp, scoffing at the impotent opposition of justice and benevolence, and ridiculing the thousands of petitions which demanded the extinction of the enormities of slavery.

At the period of the duke of Wellington's retirement from office, nothing had been done worth even the name of amelioration; the wretched slave was a slave still, and his children after him for ever were maintained to be rightfully held" in fee simple," such was lord Seaford's declaration in the House of Lords, echoed by

Mr. Burge, the colonial agent, in the House of Commons. The public were indignant; they felt that they had been deluded, and that the unhappy objects of their solicitude were as far as ever from the enjoyment of peace, freedom, or Christianity. The tables of both houses were loaded with thousands upon thousands of petitions; even the names of which could scarcely be read, so great was their number, and they were obliged to be carted away in heaps to the common receptacle of forgotten rubbish.

In the mean time, a new cabinet was formed; and so confident was the national faith in its wishes to abolish West-Indian Slavery, that the public murmur was hushed, and the matter was virtually consigned into its hands. But, said the ministers (not indeed in so many words, but such was understood to be the fact), "We are anxious to achieve this great work; but, unhappily, the West-Indian party, well knowing our intention, have joined the borough interest, and are endeavouring to turn us out, on the question of Parliamentary Reform, with a view to prevent our attacking Negro Slavery. We dare not meet both questions at once, for we cannot stand this coalition; but the moment we can make head in our reform measure, we shall be strong enough to go to the West Indies." The reform measure was defeated from time to time; the West Indians prudently kept slavery out of sight, and became violent admirers of rotten boroughs: they knew, as Lord Wynford has unwarily divulged, that Parliamentary Reform would abolish Negro Slavery; they therefore loyally employed, at no little cost, the conservative club of Charles Street, and the dregs of the press, down to the degraded press of Roake and Varty, and defeated Government on the

We call it so, because one of the most indecent, scurrilous, and contemptible pro-slavery pamphlets ever published, lately found its way to us from this press, stamped moreover with the most cordial recommendation of the "Christian Remembrancer," (a publication which professes to speak the language of certain niembers of the Church of England; and it can certainly boast of access to the documents of two of our church societies, which are regularly transmitted to its privileged pages,) and with the allegation, that the Roake-and-Varty press is supported by men of high station, including several members of the Right Reverend bench itself, who certainly never meant that their anti-reform subscriptions should be mixed up with the scurrilityof the WestIndian party. Let our readers take a brief specimen of the sort of writing which "Christian Remembrancer," calling itself the monthly representative of " the orthodox part of the Church of England"

a

Timber Question; and so managed their matters, that the most zealous abolitionists felt it impossible to do any thing in parliament till the reform question was disposed of.

The Government, however, we believe, did what it could; and its members in both houses spoke with much decision respecting their intentions and in proof of them, they sent out to the West Indies those humane orders in council, which we mentioned in our last volume, page 773. These orders were not perfect, and they were only meliorative, not abolitionary; but they were so far useful and efficient, that the advocates of the West-India interest declared, if they were carried into effect, there was an end to slavery in every thing but the name. They endeavoured, in consequence, to intimidate Government; they renewed their opposition to the reform bill; no money, nor art, nor parliamentary stratagem was spared to effect their purpose; and some of them even joined the cause of scriptural education, as a party-weapon to perplex the cabinet. At length, all proving in vain, their last resource was to try to stave off the evil for a few months longer, hoping that the present ministers might be thrown out, or that some other

recommends, and the Roake-and- Varty press, calling itself "conservative" publishes. We copy only a few fragments; but the whole is in a similar style.

Scene. The London Anti-Slavery So

ciety meeting. Mr. B-x-n takes the chair.

"Dear brotherhood, accept my warmest greeting;

I'm quite overjoyed to see so full a meeting.

Over our hallow'd persons hangs a charm, Black guardian angels shelter us from

harm.

With pious exultation I rejoice,

To see that this assembly is so choice; That its component parts are the elect, &c. &c.

Great W-b-ce now aged, bent, and hoary,

In privacy enjoys his well-earned glory; This title is his due, the world confesses, Father of all the great A double Ses!! "Mr. Z-y M-ly, with a soft glance at the fair sex present," &c. &c. We scorn to extract more; we only say, when will all the Reverend, Right Reverend, and other respectable upholders of negro-slavery, (effectively so, whatever may be their modifying views; for the slave-owner cares not for their intentions if he get their votes,) open their eyes to their humiliating coalition, with all that is base and degrading, from John Bull and Blackwood, to the flogging of women and the martyrdom of missionaries?

lucky event might happen, to put off the question of negro-slavery for another ten or twenty years. They therefore demanded a committee of inquiry! After nearly fifty years' accurate investigation of the question, with facts, evidence, and authentic documents, in waggon-loads, in the records and papers of Parliament, no intelligent or honest man in the country having a shadow of doubt on the subject, they wanted to begin the whole anew, and to procure a parliamentary committee of colonial proprietors and their advocates, to bring forth partial West-Indian evidence, procured by West-Indian money, in order to soothe down the public abhorrence of slavery. The Government rejected the insidious request; Lord Goderich, in his official letter respecting the orders in council, explicitly stating that "It is not in deference to any vulgar prejudice respecting West-India slavery; nor is it by substituting vague theory for specific information, that his Majesty's Government have directed their course; they have, on the contrary, grappled with specific evils, the existence of which was generally admitted even by the enemies of the measure." Where then was the need of inquiry? or, in other words, of interminable delay, till a pro-slavery cabinet could be procured, or the public be worn out in the contest and give it up altogether. But we deeply lament to say that the intrigue has succeeded, and we blush to add chiefly by means of the Church of England. Lord Seaford, whose large stake in the profits of this atrocious system is well known to our readers (see especially Anti-Slavery Reporter for September, 1828); Lord Seaford, whose own slaves, notwithstanding all his exertions, have been shewn to be in a state of fearful decrease under his West-Indian managers; Lord Seaford, an old opponent of the abolition of the slave trade, as now of slavery; Lord Seaford, whose voluntary manumissions in six years, from 1821 to 1826, are stated to have been confined to one single case, namely, that of a woman and her children, presumed to belong to one of his overseers, and for whose bones and sinews his lordship received into his purse 500. sterling; Lord Seaford chose the critical moment of the introduction of the reform bill in the House of Lords, to foil ministers in their measures for slave amelioration. Still, notwithstand ing the political opposers of the cabinet coalesced with his lordship, all agreeing to sink their differences, and to make common cause to defeat the Government, the "saints," and the abolitionists; this cause of humanity and religion might still have triumphed over interested opposition, had not the Archbishop of Canterbury in evil hour joined the phalanx. In vain Lord Goderich had asserted in his official despatch, that the orders in council for the amelioration

of the state of slavery were grounded on proved and admitted facts; in vain had he protested against the degradation of being compelled, for the mere purpose of creating delay, gravely to inquire by means of a parliamentary committee whether it was desirable that men should continue to toil like horses under the cart-whip; whether women should continue to be flogged naked by any brute (on Lord Seaford's own estate, for instance,) who chooses thus to wreak his unmanly vengeance; whether slaves should continue to be forced to live in concubinage for want of the marriage tie being legally protected; whether a ruffian should still have it in his power legally to tear the child from the parent, and to over work, ill feed, and flog his fellow-creatures beyond the powers of physical endurance; to say nothing of his being permitted to prohibit their learning to read the word of God, or to enjoy a Christian Sabbath, or to attend Divine worship; all these things, Lord Goderich, as well as his predecessor Sir G Murray, refused to appoint a committee to inquire into; their own manly feelings spoke instinctively; and the orders in council were but the embodying of humane, though not adequate, provisions on these and similar points. But when, at the close of Lord Seaford's speech, the Archbishop of Canterbury stood up as his panegyrist, and the panegyrist of the West Indians in the matter of Negro education, it was difficult for any set of men, however honest their intentions, to resist such a phalanx. If ministers were not honest, if they were secret parties to the trick, their conduct has been base beyond any thing that we remember of any modern cabinet. But much as we disapprove of some of their proceedings, much especially as we lament their mistaken and unhallowed policy with regard to scriptural education and the cause of Protestantism in Ireland, we cannot believe they consented to this humiliation without what appeared to them dire necessity; though no necessity,-not even could they have propitiated the duke of Wellington, Lord Seaford, and the Archbishop, to be merciful to their Reform Bill,—can plead an adequate exeuse for their surrender. Lord Seaford, with a view to white-wash slavery in the public eye, did the Most Reverend prelate the honour to procure him the presidency of this pro-slavery committee. We call it pro-slavery, for though there are some names in it not entitled to this epithet, yet the leaders and those who will chiefly manage the business, are either slave holders or closely connected with West-Indian interests. Little did his Grace consider the humiliating position in which he has placed himself; the triumph of Blackwood and John Bull, the delight of his politic seducers, and the fatal blow which he will inflict upon the church, should he ever sign his name to a

All

report which either stops short of the orders in council or does not go very far beyond them. Disguise the matter as we may, under the specious name of inquiry, the real plain fact is, that Government had sent out an order to the crown colonies, and wished to enforce it upon the chartered ones by parliamentary sanction; to prevent which, Lord Seaford triumphs in having procured this committee. The order in council enforced, that protectors of slaves should be appointed; Sunday markets abolished; slaves not to be worked on a Sunday; women not to be flogged; men not to receive above fifteen lashes at the mere caprice of their master; slave marriages to be legalized; relatives not to be separated; slaves to purchase their freedom at a valuation; bumane limits to be fixed to the hours of labour; and slaves to be allowed to frequent Divine worship. All this the West Indies declared intolerable; they had a right, in fee, to flog women, and maltreat men, and persecute missionaries, and torture slaves for attending Methodist chapels, and all the rest of the privileges just recorded; and they would combine to overturn the ministry that had attempted to interfere with these their inalienable rights. this was to be expected; but that they should have found an Archbishop of Canterbury, himself moreover a humane and amiable man, weak enough to fall into their snare, (for we do not do his Grace the injustice to believe that he has mixed himself up with the business from mere political faction,) was more then they could have reasonably hoped for. What is his Grace, as president of this committee, to inquire into? No person doubts or denies that women are publicly whipped, in a state of almost absolute nudity, by men, or that men are worked under the lash, or arbitrarily lacerated with it; or that the Sabbath is a market day; or that marriage is not legally sanctioned; or that, contrary to the order of nature, the poor creatures die off faster than they multiply these, as Lord Goderich justly affirms, are clear points; but his Grace is set in that chair expressly and notoriously, under the plea of inquiry, to sanction and continue these enormities; to prevent the operation of the orders in council which forbad them, and to sully his lawn with the feculence of vice and the pollution of blood. There is indeed, a minority in the committee, who will perhaps take care that all the evidence shall not be on one side; but in the mean time we trust the public at large will arouse them selves to their duty, and shew the Government that if they will engage in the work of Negro Emancipation, honestly and effectually, they may safely defy all the Wynfords, Seafords, and Wellingtons who have leagued to defeat their efforts, and by the blessing of God bring this question to a safe and final issue.

With regard to his Grace of Canterbury, we have written with pain and sorrow. It is lamentable to see an individual in his high and responsible station, driven about in so many questions on this side and that, at the caprice of political and interested parties. In the Slave-conversion Society, his Grace is deceived by the representatives of West-Indian interests; in the presidentship of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he has held back the reins, and in truth prevented the emancipation of the slaves on the Codrington estates, which, had he sanctioned it, might have been effected long ago. We have refrained from alluding to the subject for more than a year; but after his Grace's coalition with Lord Seaford, our hopes in that quarter are extinguished, and we almost repent the part we took in preventing some zealous abolitionists sending in petitions to parlia ment, praying that no further public grant should be made to the society, on the ground that it had lost the public confidence as a religious and missionary institution, by its tenacity in upholding the unchristian institution of Negro Slavery. The friends of religion and justice in that Society must again use their efforts, or all will be yet in vain. If the next Annual Report is no better than the last, in reference to this topic, the prospect is hopeless indeed.

We were about respectfully to submit to the Right Reverend bench, more especially the Most Reverend prelate, a few passages from the writings of Warburton, Horsley, and Porteus, on the subject of Negro slavery, and the duty of the Right Reverend bench respecting it; but our space does not admit. We will, however, find room for a most energetic appeal from Granville Sharp, which will probably be new, both to their lordships and our own readers. Mr. Sharp adds in a manuscript note, that the bishops took his address in good part and were not offended. May we be as happy; and may this important question, on which we dare not write coldly, be brought by the mercy of God to a safe and speedy termination. The following is Granville Sharp's peroration :

"But Great Britain, though staggering under a much heavier load (than Israel) of the same kind of guilt, has not produced, out of her numerous peerage, one single chief to stand up for the land,' and remove her burden! Mark this, ye Right Reverend fathers of our church, who sit with the princes of the realm, to consult the welfare of the state! Think not that I am inclined, through any misguided prejudice, to charge your order in particular with the omission: the crying sin has been hitherto far distant from your sight, and perhaps was never fully represented to you, or like faithful watchmen of Israel' you would long ago have warned

our nation of the danger. But I now call upon you, in the name of God, for assistance! Ye know the Scriptures, and therefore to you, my lords, in particular, I appeal. If I have misrepresented the word of God, on which my opposition to slavery is founded, point out my errors, and I submit: but if, on the other hand, you should perceive that the texts here quoted, are really applicable to the question before us; that my conclusions from thence are fairly drawn ; and that the examples of God's vengeance against tyrants, and slave-holders ought strictly to warn us against similar oppressions, and similar vengeance; you will not then, I trust, be backward in this cause of God and man. Stand up (let me entreat you) for the land. Make up the hedge,' to save your country perhaps it is not yet too late! Enter a solemn protest, my lords, against those who have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. Ye know that the testimonies I have quoted are of God!"

By the mercy of God, the dreaded malady which has visited our shores, has hitherto been comparatively light, and in the metropolis appears for the present to have nearly subsided, the returns for the last two days being only four and five.

What it might have been, and, if God permit, may yet be, appears in the sudden and overwhelming mortality in Paris. Truly our merciful Father has not visited us after the measure of our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Let us be humble, grateful, penitent, and obedient.

The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, greatly to its honour, has memorialized the East-India Company, on the sanction given to the fearful atrocities of Indian idolatry, by making it a source of revenue. Some members doubted at first whether the Society could properly interpose in the matter; but it being shewn during the discussion, that the cause of Christianity generally, and its own proceedings in particular, are greatly prejudiced by the legal sanction given by the impost, the Bishop of London, who was in the chair, with that straight-forward manly honesty and prompt decision which characterize his proceedings, recommended the adoption of the memorial, and it passed by the general concurrence of the members. We trust it will have a highly beneficial effect upon the religious interests of India.

"The Claims of Religion." By the Rev. J. Jones.

"The Ordinances of Religion." By the Rev. J. Davies. 7s. 6d.

"The Course of Divine Judgments." By the Ven. Archdeacon Hoare. 3s. 6d. "The Succession of Sacred Literature, Vol. II. By the Rev. J. B. B. Clarke. 15s.

Researches in Greece and the Levant. by the Rev. J. Hartley. 6s.

"Missions in Labrador." By the Irish Book and Tract Society. 3s.

Missions in South Africa. 2s. 6d. Questions on Slavery answered by the Scriptures. By L. Townsend. 3d.

The Duty of a Christian People under Divine Visitations; Sermons. By the Rev. N. Smart.

Theological Library. The Life of Wicliffe, by the Rev. C. W. Le Bas. 6s. Thoughts in Affliction. By the Rev. A. S. Thelwall.

A Commentary on the Bible, compiled from Henry and Scott, for the Religious Tract Society.

Antiquities of the English Ritual. By the Rev. W. Palmer, 2 Vols.

Devotional Lectures, by Dr. Allen.

The Seven Apocalyptic Churches, with etchings. By C. Macfarlane.

Short Lectures on the New Testament, by the Rev. C. Girdlestone, Part I. St. Matthew and St. Mark. 9s.

A Treatise on the Christian Sabbath, by the Rev. D. Mac Farlan. 4s.

66

Sermons," by the Rev. C. Ive s.

"The Laws of Christ," by the Rev. J. Turnbull. 5s.

"The Biblical Cabinet," Part I. Ernesti's Institutes, translated by the Rev. C. Terrot.

"Christus Crucifixus," by the Rev. A. Johnson.

A Funeral Sermon for the Rev. H. C. Redley, by the Rev. C. Williams. Is. "A Word for Political Protestantism." "The Tithes in Ireland," by the Rev. Dr. Hinch.

“The Pleasures of Religion,” a Poem, by the Rev. H. Stowell. 6s.

"National Safety and Individual Repentance," a Sermon, by the Rev. G. F. Ottey.

A Sermon, preached on the Fast Day, by the Rev. W. Pickering. Is.

"Self-Delusion," a Sermon, by the Rev. F. Dusautoy. 2s. 6d.