LETTERS OF A CONSERVATIVE ON THE ENGLISH C H UR

C II.

THESE Letters, the author tells us at the commencement, arc the fragments of a larger work, which was intended "to trace and to expose the faults and fallacies of every Administration from the beginning of the year 1775," when he was born. He continues - 4 On looking over the large quantity of materials I had collected, and of the papers I had composed out of them, I found among the latest no mild re- prehension of some living statesmen. This followed as the corollary of their recorded words and actions. But the mischief they did is now in part removed, though not by them nor indeed with their consent; and the exposure of it could only serve for the imiulgence of ill-humour and the excitement of ma- lignity. This alone would have been a sufficient reason with me for suppress- ing my manuscript. There was one yet stronger. Among the Ministers whose speeches and plans appeared to me detrimental to the interests of the nation, some had been benevolent to modest worth, and others friendly to useful literature. I would do nothing to grieve the patronized or to offend the patron, when the good was yet active and when the evil bad ceased. 1 threw these papers into the fire ; no record of them is existing. But the second part, which I scarcely had begun, must he continued. This relates to the abuses of the Church Establishment, such as, unless they are totally done away with, will involve our country, for the third time, in all the miseries of popular discord, and in all the immoralities of abitrary spoliation.

He addresses his remarks to Lord MELBOURNE, as the man best fitted to give effect to his views ; lie has thrown them int the form of Letters, that a "small portion may be taken up and examined at a time;" and, lest any should think that WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR has strayed, like any and WORDSWORTH, -from the principles of his youth, let it be said that he calls him- self Conservative in the sense of a surgeon who removes the pee- «cant parts to preserve the existence of the patient. In a literary point of view, these Letters are a very delightful publication. They are full of character ; they abound with the essences of reading and reflection ; they have passages of pointed wit and humour, and of satire only prevented from becoming the bitterest sarcasm by the evident bonhommie of the writer; the personal allusions are autobiographical, not egotistical; the illus- trations are very various and very apt; the style is terse and pithy ; the spirit which animates the whole characterized by a quaint and homely elegance. The Letters have neither the strength, the fire, nor the logic of MILTON'S controversial writings ; and the easy temper of our age has saved the author from the coarseness which distinguished the controvertists of the seven- teenth century yet, notwithstanding so many points of contrast, these Letters of a Conservative approach nearer to the prose works of our great poet than any other writings we are-acquainted with. As a political essay, this publication of Mr. LANDOR'S has less direct value. It is defective in its arrangement ; its nature is too discursive and fragmentary to form a consistent whole; the author does not seem to have comprehended or mastered the subject in its full extent, and therefore neither his views of the evils nor his plans for their remedy-are of a very definite or practical nature. The points which he sees most clearly are—the inequality of in- comes, the abuses of Prelacy, and the spread of Dissent ; whence he infers the unfitness of the Establishment for its avowed object. The subject on which he chiefly dwells is pontifical luxury and wealth : the remedy which he suggests is to pare down the pre- lates' incomes to a more apostolical standard-12001. a year in England, 800/. in Ireland and Wales ; applying the surplus in augmenting the poor livings and advancing general education; and extricating the Church from the State. If, however, the Letters cannot be praised as a model of political writing, they are likely to be a very useful assistant to the cause of Church Reform. They aro powerful front the mere weight of the abuses. If no new light is thrown upon the subject, old facts are presented in a new or more striking form ; whilst the name of the author, and the peculiar character of his tract, will carry it where more methodical treatises would never reach.

The fragmentary nature of the work has been already men- tioned; and the extracts shall partake of the character of the source whence they are derived.

CAUSE OF THE DOW NIA L OF ESTABLISHMENTS.

The spirit of those pious men who composed the ordinances of the Church of England was so conciliating, that any one would surely wish it to continue and prevail. And certain I am that such would have been the case, if the power of the higher clergy had not engendered arrogance, and their riches an indifference to their duties. It would be unfair and false to assert that all of them are under this predicament ; nor were all when the Church was Catholic nor is there any reason to believe that the number of those who abused their trust was greater then. Enormous wealth, both then and now, was granted to clergy- men for inadequate services. This was the complaint—this is the complaint— this must cease to be tlio complaint. The nation will not wait until those who are the devourers are devoured ; but will reduce them instantly to some parity with the other high orders in the state. A prelate must nolonger be estimated at thirty Admirals ; a greater number than ever were in commission at once during the most prosperous of our wars.

DEFINITION OF TITHES.

To take advantage not merely of God's bounty in his earth's fertility, butto be a tracker and a pricker to every quiet nook, every snug form in the whole country—to profit by every invention, every scheme for agricultural improve- ment, every expenditure that frugality and prudence shall have hazarded—to seize a tenth of herbs and fruits, uncultivated and unknown by the nation, in those ages when a more patriarchal priesthood watched over the labours of the farmer, and oftener relieved them than decimated the produce toseize upon these things, and more, soinetinwa with arms, sometimes with laws that suck out all the blood that arms have not spilt—this now really, in theological linguage, is must damnable transubstantiation.

AN EXAMPLE OF WORKING WELL.

We hear of systems workiny usell ; but we can only judge of English Epis- copacy working well by what we have seen her wear out. She has worn out her church upon both feet—upon Ireland and Wales. If we wish to prevent her from doing herself any further mischief than habitual sloth, plethory, and passion, have been accumulating within her : if we wish to with- hold her from the scorn, contumely, and blows of the people, we must confine her strictly at home, feed her more sparingly, mix a little water in her goblet, and keep a vigilant eye over her, that she be liable, in her enfeebled and unwieldy condition, to no worse and more pliagedenick distemper, from the ardour of her profligate lovers.

l'ItE CHURCH IN DANGER.

. There is scarcely a clergyman in the kingdom who has not cried out, or bend his neighbour cry out, the Church is in danger! You may put any thing in danger by laying a heap of treasure in it, which only a drowsy old dotard Ilea any interest in guarding. Di lll inish the quantity of loose gold, plac, more and better guardians about it, pay them justly and regularly, each according to his activity and vigilance, and you may take your rest fearlessly and soundly.

DISSENTING FACTS AND REASONS.

Forty years ago there were but thirty Popish chapels in England. * Last year there were five hawked and ten ; twenty or thirty more are rising from their foundations. About au hour since, I passed by one of prodigious size, between Clifton and Bristol. Twenty-five years ago, there was one small room, in Bath, by courtesy called a chapel : it might contain fifty persons, leaving but scanty space for the censer to swing about in. There are now about three thousand. In Liverpool and in Manchester, the number of those who are returning to the ancient faith is proportionally great. How is all this? The English are less liable than must other nations, perhaps than any on earth, to be captivated with music, with painting, with sculpture, with gesticulations, and finery and perfumes. They are mu fond of opening their hearts in confession; they are not easi'y wheedled cut of their money; they are suspicious if their wives and daughters lend their ears without good security to a priest ; they neither grant pardon nor receive it too readily. Bibles have been given to them unsparingly, and tracts for all their nece,sities—quite in vain ! They have turned off their old bakers, and prefer the bread of life in the form of a wafer.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FACTS.

Whatever I possess in the world arises from landed property, and that entailed. My prejudices and interests might therefore be supposed to lean, however softly, on the side of aristocracy. I had three Church livings in my gift, one very considerable (about a thousand a year), two smaller, which are still in my gift. It may therefore be conceived that I am not quite indifferent to what may befal the Church. These things it is requisite to mention, now I deem it proper to appear not generically as a Conservative, but personal) y. • • The Bishop of Loudon groaned at an apparition in Ireland ; and a horrible one it was indeed. A clergyman was compelled, by the severity of fortune, or. more Christianly speaking, by the wiles and maliciousness of Satan, to see his son work in his garden. Had the Right Reverend Baron passed my house early; in the morning or late in the evening, the chances are that he would have found me doing the sauna thing, and oftentimes more unprofitably ; that :,s, planting trees from which some other will gather the fruit. Would his mitred head have turned • 'I Progress of Papery," Ity the Reverent', E. Bie.keratetb.

giddy to see me on a ladder, pruning or grafting my peaches ? I should have been sorry for it, not being used to come down until my work was over, even when visiters no less illustrious than the Right Reverend Baron have called on me. But we have talked together in our relative stations ; 1 above, they below.

THE END OF THE WHOLE.

If the (same causes produce the same effects, and if we allow them to con- tinue, we shall perceive that about one in four throughout the United Kingdom will be of the Establishment at the close of seventy years. Of course, lung be- fore that period, the Dissidents must overthrow it. Consider now whether it is better to see it overthrown than corrected- consider whether many great and excellent things have not fallen into ruin by permitting only (what appeared) a brief procrastination. Some are of opinion that the Church of England, at the present hour, does not embrace half the inhabitants of the United King- dom. In that case it would be just and lawful at any time, with consent of Parliament, to subvert it utterly. Should it not be the case, it soon must be. Would it not be such a miscalculation as no gamester ever was accused of, were the distributors of the national wealth and offices to resolve on holding in their bands, rather than lay on the table, the winning card ? Their children and friends may enjoy the station of bishops with much respectability and dignity ; but never in future with papal display and Oriental splendour. They may con.. tinue to be as wealthy and elevated as the prelates of other countries, or us the governors of cities, or even of provinces : but they must not stand above most princes of the Continent, and, higher than any of them, above those English. men who, concentrating the might and majesty of the nation, strike down on our subject sea the audacity of kings and emperors.