on the election of Dr. Hampden, until he had been examined by the archbishop. The Bishop of Exeter published a pamphlet, in which he maintained that the law which gives the Government such a power over the church, is "the Magna Charta of tyranny;" and the Dean of Hereford declared, that he could not become a party to the election of Dr. Hampden, without violating his conscience, and committing sin. But in spite of the pamphlet of one bishop, the remonstrance of thirteen, and the alleged conscientious scruples of the dean, the dean and chapter were compelled to elect the man of the Prime Minister's choice, and they did so.

I have nothing to do here with the fitness or unfitness of Dr. Hampden for his office, nor with the motives which influenced his opponents; but I ask you, as members of the church, and as Christian men, whether it is seemly or right for you to be in a position in which the highest dignitaries of your church can be forced upon you by the civil power, in spite of the remonstrances of people, clergy, and the whole bench of bishops? You can no longer doubt now, that such is the law to which you are in bondage. The legal question has been argued for several days in succession in the Court of Queen's Bench; and the decision of the court is, that the power-the sole and unrestrained power-of appointing your bishops, belongs to the Crown, and not to the church.

Such is your ecclesiastical position. Your own friends and advocates declare it to be so. Your church is utterly destitute of church power. You cannot observe the laws of Christ in the church, except so far as they are

sanctioned or permitted by the laws of the land. You, good Christians, are deprived of some of your highest privileges. You are prevented from fulfilling some of your duties. Improper bishops may be, and unconverted ministers often are, forced upon you, and you have no means of preventing it. Whatever reforms you may wish in the church, you have no means of effecting them; and then, as a natural consequence of the whole, Christ, our glorious Head, is dishonoured, and Christianity is misrepresented and scandalised.

How long, my fellow Christians-how long do you mean to give your sanction to this catalogue of evils? One of two courses is open to youeither resolve that your church shall be free, by being severed from the State; or "come out of her," and join some other church that is free. Demand your church's freedom, or assert and exercise your own. In the fear of God, adopt this as your watchword"The separation of the church from the State, or the separation of yourselves from the church." March 1, 1848.

A FRIEND.

ON PARODY.

SOME nine or ten months ago, a paper, called "The XXIXth Chapter of the Acts," was issued, and "went the round of the press;" even the Patriot deeming it not unworthy of a place in its pure and high-principled columns. Not a word of complaint or remonstrance was heard from any quarter. Having read the thing ourselves, and considering it exceedingly adapted to show to the common mind the unscriptural character not only of the church

rate exaction, but of the system of which it is a part, and having our hearts daily wrung with recitals of the social mischief resulting from it, we were induced to give the article a place in the Penny Magazine, in order to its widest possible diffusion. There it appeared, and instantly Churchmen, with their adherents, both in town and country, took the alarm. The provincial papers roundly abused us as the writers as well as the publishers; nowhere did we meet with rougher usage than in Birmingham. A virulent anonymous writer there, succeeded to draw out a respectable Dissenter, who responded to the voice of the man in the mask, with his name; and, among other things, assured him that "the writer of the parody on The Acts of the Apostles,' is no member of the Evangelical Alliance." If so, which we know not, we humbly submit he may not be the worse for that; like some others, perhaps, he is satisfied with being a member of the General Assembly of the Church of the First Born. The following letter to the editor of an obscure London journal, which had added its feeble accents to swell the cry, will throw some light upon his general and Christian character;

To the Editor of the

Sir, I have read in the Christian's Penny Magazine, for March, the article referred to by your correspondent, "Nonconformist," in last week's

"The Right to Plunder Vindicated," nor can I see any reason for his sombre remarks and violent accusations.

Who your correspondent may be I know not, but I think he cannot be rightly named, if (as he says) he sees "nothing to applaud" in the article to which he refers. The aim and intention of a person may be very laudable, even if the method

by which he seeks to accomplish them be absurd. The aim and intention of the writer of "The Right to Plunder, &c." is very evident, and will appear to most very mist" the article may partake very much good, though in the eyes of "Nonconforof the absurd, and even, as he says, of the profane. Nor does the graphic manner in which the just method of laying, and the merciful way of levying church rates, is described in the article in question, prove that its author is a man very low in thought and fancy," as "Nonconformist" seems to intimate. I should be very proud of it had I been its author, and would will

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ingly have taken all the responsibility off the shoulders both of the Congregational Union, and of that mighty man in question, whose influence for good is extending through the world, yea, and will extend when his puny opposers and impugners shall be forgotten.

Perhaps "Nonconformist" may be among those soft and amiable Dissenters who would not oppose a church-rate for fear of offending the church people, or of being called political; or he may be one who, for some reason, real or imaginary, is offended with Dr. Campbell.

I happen to know the author of "The Right to Plunder, &c.," and have great pleasure in informing "Nonconformist" that he is an independent minister of some standing, and most laborious, indefatigable, and successful in his endeavours to save souls; universally beloved by his own people and all who know him, and that he is not behind any minister in the denomination, in "Works of faith and labours of love." His parish has lately been distracted, and its peace destroyed, by the unholy spirits called forth in support of, or in opposition to, that fruitful source of every evil, a church-rate.

On that occasion it was that the article which has given such offence to "Nonconformist" was written; and, notwithstanding the disastrous effects which it has produced upon him, Nonconformists in general will approve of the same, and think it likely to be instrumental in bring

ing about the utter abolition of that unholy impost against which it is levelled. Hoping you will insert this in the of Friday next, I am, Sir, yours respectfully, GEORGE GRIFFITHS.

Long Buetby, Daventry,

March 14, 1848.

But none have acted a part so unprincipled as the Methodist Watchman, who has honoured us with his worst invective and his most envenomed misrepresentation for several weeks in succession. We wish we could believe his zeal to consist in sincere concern for the honour of the Inspired Volume. But we judge him not; and, as we deem him unworthy of editorial notice, we leave him to a correspondent who has done the work of exposure and castigation in a very satisfactory manner. The writer proceeds:

Sir, It is with unmitigated disgust that the wanton, unmanly, uncourteous, unsustained, and unsustainable attack made upon you in the columns of last week's Wesleyan Watchman, is read by many, who, like myself, have an occasional glimpse of the revelations made by his dubious lantern. Many of those whose protector he volunteers to be, will not fail to detect the virulence of his pretended fastidiousness for God's Holy Word. He knows that the article alluded to was penned less with any intention of defending Scripture from impious parodiststhat has been done ad nauseam aforetime -than from a malicious, ever-watching desire to inflict, if possible, a wound upon the arm that has been so successfully employed in lifting up the curtain that conceals the "Divan," whose hireling he is, in all its tyrannous and crouching proceedings.

The Watchman is on the horns of this dilemma. Either he is ignorant or dishonest, and so alike unfitted to guide opinion and mould mind. He must have known that the article, headed "The

Right to Plunder Vindicated," was not yours, and yet attributes it to you with all its "irreverent caricature" and "audacious profanity," for the meanest, the paltriest of purposes; or if even he could be so ignorant of what most people know, viz., that the said parody "issued" from the city of Hereford some nine months ago, and went the round of the press, it is just a proof that, if Watchman at all, it is only a blind one that he is, and the sooner he is superseded the better.

It will not do for him to shift, as he can well do, and say, that having a place in the Penny is the point at which he aimed. He fixes authorship, or his article is as meaningless as his assaults of you have always been. By saying, that "it did not issue from Holywell-street-the Dispatch-office-in the first instance," he leaves his readers to infer that it did issue

from the office of "The Penny" in the first instance. And this is what has called forth my letter, which is at your service, if you think the exposé may be useful in opening people's eyes to the wretched garbling and falsifications of the Fleetstreet Watchman.

Pray, what is the reason he and his confratres are perpetually endeavouring to set you and the Congregational Union by the ears? I think he had far better mind his own "beat," and devote himself to something that is practicable.-Yours very truly,

Kidderminster.

T.

The said "Parody" has been read by tens of thousands with admiration. At York it has been republished, and some copies transmitted to us with the following note:

York, April 4, 1848. Reverend Sir,-Four thousand of the enclosed have been printed and circulated in our cathedral city. I am happy to inform you that, within the past six months, the subject of separation of Church and State has been discussed more than at any previous time. The "Penny" is doing a

Houghton-le-Spring, March 31, 1848. My dear Sir,-Having seen lately, in the Christian's Penny Magazine, an article, entitled "The XXIXth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles," and having been highly pleased with it, I have made bold to ask you, whether you would be willing to print me a few hundreds for gratuitous distribution in this locality, and what would be the cost say of 300 or 400. I have no doubt that such distribution would do much good at the approaching Vestry-meeting in this place.-With warmest wishes, I am, my dear Sir,

yours, &c.

ANDERSON DRYSDALE, Presbyterian Minister.

So

Thus, then, it will appear, that neither the Parody in March," nor the "Apology" in April, was written by us; but if they had, we should have seen no cause to blush, else we should not have admitted them to our columns. satisfied, indeed, are we of the propriety of our act, that nothing could have induced us to notice the parties in question, had it not been for the extraordinary endeavour of the Watchman to sow discord among brethren; and this, notwithstanding the failure and disgrace of all his past attempts in the

same direction. It will hardly be credited, that such was the Watchman's zeal to raise a clamour, that, in addition to publishing the pitiful protest of the Methodist Magazine against the Parody," it alleged profanity of the " also actually published the kindred protest of the John Bull,-the vilest and most Torified of all the Sunday papers! Even he has taken the alarm for the honour of the sacred Scriptures! Hypocrites!-It is not the Gospel but the Church they are alarmed about! Our sapient censors confound the parody of prose with the parody of poetry; the former has been applied by the greatest and best of men, to the noblest and holiest of purposes; the latter chiefly to banter, to burlesque, or to travesty. In the present instance, we hold that it has been most legitimately and most successfully employed in exposing the unscriptural character of the compulsory system, by showing its utter incongruity with the Scripture Narrative. The idea was striking and original; the design-which was to bring contempt, not upon religion, but upon robbery-most meritorious. There is no better way of determining what is Apostolic, than by viewing it through the medium of Apostolic times, and clothing it in the costume of the sacred Scriptures; whatever, so viewed, is hideous and revolting, men may rest assured is not of God. Now, supposing the said "XXIXth Chapter" to have been, in substance, and in Evangelic phrase, actually a part of the Apostolic Narrative, would it not have been utterly fatal to the inspired character of the whole, and have exposed it to the prompt and indignant rejection of mankind? Such had been the fact; we leave the inference to our readers.