as the most intricate and perplexed, the ridicule which must attach itself to such arguments, however ingeniously maintained, cannot fail, in a certain degree, to be reflected on the Church. For after all that ingenuity and subtlety can do, the public opinion must at last be decided by the plain reason of plain men. With such, the appeal is always to fact and experience. They will not believe it to be an offence to carry home to the habitations of the poor and ignorant that Bible alone, which is daily read in the Church, as alone containing the words of everlasting life. They will not believe the members of the Bible Society to be bad Churchmen (with whatever dexterity you may prove that they must be so), while they perform, both in the Church and in society, the offices of good men and good Christians.

But from the apprehension of all these dangers, the support which the Bible Society has received from so large a proportion of the clerical body, in a great degree relieves my mind. It evinces a liberality of sentiment, and a conciliatory disposition, from which the happiest consequences may be expected. In speaking of this proportion, we must keep in view the recent establishment of the Society, and the great numbers both of the clergy and laity who have had no opportunity of joining it. It is the common practice of the opponents of the Society to represent all who do not actually subscribe to it as its adversaries. The fact is, that great numbers are even ignorant of its existence. I have repeatedly, among my own acquaintance, met with persons of rank and education, and of extensive general information, who had never heard of such a Society-I do not recollect to have met with one who, when its object and operations were, for the first time, explained to him, failed 'Page 128.

to express the most decided approbation of them-Such is the first natural movement of an unprejudiced mind.

But of those who are acquainted with the Society, great numbers are withheld from subscribing by motives very different from disapprobation. It is but too true, that a large portion of the clergy are in circumstances which make even a small subscription a matter of serious concern to them. Many have for a long time been members of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, and cannot conveniently contribute to both Societies. Many are unable to do it to either. The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge itself, which you uphold as a true Church of England Society, and which has subsisted more than a century, would, if examined by the same rule, be likewise condemned. The number of parishes in England is upwards of 11,000; yet the total number of clergymen belonging to that Society is, according to the last Report, only about 2900.

By the spirit of conciliation which I have mentioned, and which does so much honor to the clergy of the present day, another danger is averted from the Church not less considerable than those I have before alluded to-that of a discordance of sentiment between the clergy and the laity. It is natural and proper that the clergy, and especially those in the most dignified situations, should watch with peculiar caution any thing which may be supposed to tend to religious innovation, and it is no less natural that they should sometimes be suspected of pushing their caution to an excess; and that in times when the public attention is strongly turned to reform, some collision of opinion should arise between them and the laity, which may lead to the most dangerous consequences. But the clergy can never more justly merit, or more surely acquire, the confidence of their flocks than by keeping pace with, and even taking the lead of them

in a plan of general conciliation and extensive beneficencea plan founded on the surrender of ancient prejudices, and leading to the establishment of universal concord.

To say that either the Church or the State is free from danger, would, in times like the present, be an empty and presumptuous boast. The earthquake, by which so many churches and so many states have been shattered into ruin, still continues to heave the ground; and it appears evident that these dreadful convulsions of the moral and political world are, by the unseen councils of Providence, directed to bring about some great renovation in the religious state of man. We cannot doubt indeed that the end is wise and beneficial, yet it is impossible for us to judge with what degree of temporary calamity the means may be attended. What part, whether of action or of suffering, we may be doomed to bear in these awful changes, it is not for human wisdom to pronounce; and is perhaps kindly hidden in the darkness of futurity. But I am inclined to indulge in the more pleasing prospect, and to view the Church of England as rising to greater eminence and shining with brighter lustre.

Amidst public difficulty and private embarrassment, I see the hand of Charity extended to every species of distress, with an extent of bounty, not only unknown to former times, but which would have been incredible to them. I see every where new institutions forming; yet old establishments supported; and let it be remembered, that in these noble works, which I trust will rise in remembrance before God on behalf of this nation, the Dissenters claim their full share with the Church of England. I see the ships of Britain no longer tearing the natives of Africa from their parent soil, but carrying to them the arts of civilized life, and the blessings of the Gospel-I see the Church of England surrounded and assisted by differing, but respectful, and no longer hostile

sects, extending the light of truth to the remotest regions of the earth; and when to these considerations we add the wonderful preservation of the independence and constitution of this nation for so many years of impending danger, amidst the ruin which has swallowed up all the surrounding states, may we not indulge the hope that the religion of this nation is a portion of that Church, against which the gates of Hell shall not prevail; and this country a favored instrument of Providence in effecting its most sublime and beneficent designs?

It is indeed an important crisis for the Church of England. Greatness and glory wait on her decision one way— I forbear to state the consequences of the contrary decision which you would recommend; for I trust the Church has already decided, and that the triumphs of the Bible Society, which you already compare to the enthusiasm of the crusades, are but the prelude to more extensive triumphs; when this nation shall indeed take up the cross-to carry not the sword, but the Saviour, throughout the world, and when you will be, I trust, not the last to cast away your unfounded apprehensions, and to hail with unmingled satisfaction the opening of a new æra of light and truth.

I have been led to trouble you at somewhat greater length than I intended; nor should I perhaps have thought it necessary to offer any thing further to the public on this subject, had I been aware, when I began to write, that other answers to your Inquiry were preparing by men much more competent than myself to enter into all the details connected with the question; or if I had seen the observations already published in one of our ablest periodical works.'

What effect may be produced on your mind by my arguments, or by those of others, I cannot pretend to foresee :

See the British Review, No. V.

but both for your conviction, and that of the portion of the public who may still be unconvinced, I principally rely on that experience of the innocence and the importance of the Society, which has already acquired so much force, and which I trust every day will strengthen.

I am ever, &c.

(Signed)

N. VANSITTART.

Great George Street,

23d March, 1812.