choly illustration of the evils of partyspirit.

The new Chancellor of the Exchequer's first financial exposition was far from flattering. He stated the income of the year, ending April 5, 1840, at £47,843,202. The expenditure was £49,300,424., leaving a deficiency of £1,457,222. The deficiency, however, had been anticipated, to the extent of a million, by a vote of Exchequer Bills, reducing the balance unprovided for to £457,222. The charge on the Consolidated Fund was £31,877,000.; the Army, Navy, Ordnance, and Miscellaneous Estimates amounted to £16,880,000. The whole was £48,757,000. With respect to the China expedition, the expenditure will be charged on Her Majesty's Government, but will be advanced, in the first instance, by the Government of India. The amount estimated, if the expedition should last six months, would be £216,000. Looking at the condition of the country, he did not see sufficient grounds to suppose that, in the course of next year, the resources of revenue were likely to produce less than in the past year. The whole amount of our estimated income was taken by him at £47,034,000. Allowing for deductions, the income on which he could rely for the ensuing year, was £46,700,000. The deficiency would be £2,732,000 He was not prepared to make a provision for that deficiency by any temporary expedients, which would be only staving off the difficulty; and he would not place the hand of the tax-gatherer on any new object of taxation.

He

felt that it was best to propose an increase on the duties already existing. Stamps should not be included; but he proposed five per cent. on the Excise and Customs duties, and ten per cent. upon the assessed taxes; not upon the value of the commodity taxed, but upon the amount of duty now collected. He calculated the additional duty on spirits would yield him £276,000. In house and window-taxes, it was not proposed to call for arrears, but to be more strict for the future. The amount of five per cent. on the Customs and Excise would yield £1,426,000. There was still a deficiency of £400,000.; which he proposed to meet by a vote of credit. It is very depressing that so large an expenditure should be necessary, and increased taxation be required; and still more that the Army and Navy estimates should be so high; but upon the whole (excepting the war with China) we do not see, in the present circumstances of the country, that the

expenditure could be much curtailed without serious danger.

Sir R. Inglis's motion on Church extension was postponed in consequence of a technical irregularity. The petitions in favour of it have been numerous; and though any addition to the fiscal burdens of the nation would not be popular, especially at this moment of pressure, there is a growing conviction throughout the land, among the serious and well-judging part of the people, that to build and endow new churches would not only be a right, but, in the end, an economical, measure, from the moral, social, political, and religious benefits which, by the Divine blessing, would accrue from it.

In the long-pending Braintree parish question, Lord Denman has decided that a church-rate levied by the churchwardens without the authority of the vestry is invalid; and that a churchwarden is liable for the repairs of the church only so far as the parishioners vote money for that purpose; and that the principle of ecclesiastical law with regard to his duty is bounded by the resources afforded to him. For ourselves, we never felt any doubt on the question; and though it is grievous and disgraceful that a parish should refuse to do its duty, we could not see our way to the conclusion, that the churchwarden, in such case, has any right to levy money by his own authority. The decision of Sir W. Wynn, which Lord Denman has overruled, always appeared to us to rest upon a doubtful basis. Still it was right that the question should be tried; and the result being now known, some other measure must be devised, if requisite, to meet the evil.

If in these extraordinary times we were not so accustomed to strange things that they almost cease to excite attention, we might deem it incredible that Mr. Hume should have been allowed, in the British House of Commons, to record a notice of a motion for an address to the Queen to cause the National Gallery of Paintings to be opened after divine service on Sunday, for public resort. We have no fear that this ungodly suggestion will be acceded to; but the very breathing of such a proposition, if unchecked by public abhorrence, is a step in the career of national iniquity; and by little and little the people may become so accustomed to such propositions, that at length, in some unguarded hour, one or another may be listened to, and a breach be made through which the full

ritual legislation. This is true; and we are glad to find the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London admitting that we need an ecclesiastical legislative assembly, though with the latter we are yet to learn "how such an assembly is to be established." Both these prelates, as well as the Bishop of Lincoln, deprecated any such alterations as the petitioners proposed; and indeed, any alterations at the preseut moment, when it would be far more easy to pull down and scatter abroad, than to build up a more goodly fabric. The Bishop of London justly reprehended the Bishop of Norwich for his rash and unfounded statement, that the clergy do not generally believe what they subscribe to.

* tide of Sabbath desecration may freely flow, as in infidel France. And why the paltry hypocrisy of the reservation of after divine service?" Do the people who attend divine service wish to solace themselves after their toil by lounging at exhibitions? Think of the incongruity of repairing from the house of God, to the temple of the Graces! we wish we could say of the Virtues; but there are pictures in the National Gallery, for the exposure of a print of which in a shop window the culprit would be prosecuted by the Vice-Suppression Society. And where do we read "Remember to keep holy the hours of divine service?" Why, we repeat, this hypocritical reservation? Why not shout in full chorus, I am an infidel; thou art an infidel; he is an infidel; we, ye, they, all of us, are intidels; and then honestly proceed from the church to the play-house, or rather turn the church into one; and set up Baal, or Jove, or Venus, or Mr. Hume's god or goddess, of pounds, shillings, and pence, in the place of the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent? Yet perhaps it is well that such abominations are broached; for the enormity of the offence may alarm some who otherwise might be ensnared before they were aware.

While we are writing, another startling announcement bursts upon us; the presentation of a petition to the House of Lords by the Archbishop of Dublin, "to take into consideration the means whereby the letter (why this evasion; instead of saying fairly, the undeniable meaning and spirit?) of the Articles and Liturgy might be brought into greater consistency with the practice and the acknowledged system of the established Church." We have not yet seen the petition, and the proposed reforms were not specifically mentioned in the debate; but we gather that it is to the effect of the Feathers Tavern petition: and that the object is not to ease tender consciences by a slight alteration of a few ill-understood passages in our offices, which operate as a stumbling block to many pious men out of the church, as well as to some in it; but that it is wished to relax our formularies in reference to some of the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel: so that even a "moderate Arian" might not find access to its pale quite precluded. The Archbishop did not ground his non-concurrence with the petition upon its character, but upon the circumstance that Convocation, and not Parliament, is the proper court of spi

The judges have agreed unanimously that "the words 'a Protestant clergy,' in the 31st Geo. III., are large enough to include, and do include, other clergy than clergy of the Church of England, and Protestant bishops, and priests and deacons, who have received episcopal ordination." They add: "to the second part of the question, if any other, what other?' we answer, clergymen of the Church of Scotland." The Bishop of Exeter has explained that he did not intend to deny that the Church of Scotland is a church; though, if we construe bis words rightly, he means only that it is so by Act of Parliament, not truly. Why cannot Protestant Episcopalians enjoy their own Scriptural privileges without unchurching sister churches?

The bishop of London has published a most important letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, proposing the establishment of many new bishoprics in the British Colonies. His Lordship says: "The difference between our past labours in the work of erecting colonial churches, and those which are now called for, must be this: that whereas we formerly began by sending out a few individual missionaries to occupy detached and independent fields of labour, unconnected with one another by their relation to a common oversight in the execution of their task, although deriving their spiritual authority from a common origin; and then, after an interval of many years, placing them under the guidance and control of bishops, we should now, after having supplied the wants of those older colonies, which are still destitute of the benefit of episcopal government, take care to let every new colony enjoy that blessing from the very first. To us who have been urging this doctrine for a quarter of a

century, and with no better reply than, Impossible; or you would degrade the order; you would make bishops too cheap; and where are funds to be found "to support the dignity ?"-it is very consoling to see the matter thus taken up in high places; and we strongly hope with good expectation of successful results. His Lordship wishes to have a fund placed under the management of the Right Reverend bench, to aid the colonies in making local exertions to carry out the plan; and he justly looks to the friends of the church, and the Church Societies, to contribute liberally for an object so important. We fear that his Lordship has not always been so zealously aided as he ought to have been, especially by the clergy of his own diocese (we mean by their influence with others, not from their own resources) in some of his truly momentous plans of enlarged Christian duty and beneficence. We trust the present proposal will not be allowed to languish.

The anniversary meetings of various religious societies during May have been fraught with encouragement. We will advert to a few.

The enlarged labours and glowing spiritual prospects of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel are among the many bright indications of the increase of piety and zeal among the members of our church; but far more aid is still required to enable it to carry out its beneficent plans.

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is in a flourishing condition; and if the ill-judging meddlers who are striving to subvert its constitution by their new-fangled Oxford-Tract crotchets would leave it in peace to discharge its duties, it would proceed still more rapidly in its career of efficiency and improvement. It was well for the Society and the church, and we are persuaded it was also in accordance with the wishes of the Right Reverend prelates who are so often protruded in invidious positions without their concurrence-that the motion of Mr. Palmer (who, being only a deacon, might have held back his peculiar opinions for a few years without any loss to the church) was negatived in favour of Mr. Clarke's judicious proposition to revert to the previous question. We trust also the response to Mr. Perceval next month will be "Nolumus leges mutari ;"-not because the Society's laws are infallible; but because they are in the main wise, well-judged, and have stood the test of long experience; whereas such innovations as those pro

posed by Mr. Palmer or Mr. Perceval, would alter the whole character of the Society (as indeed is avowed;) would cripple its labours; and would place the bishops in circumstances of extreme awkardness and difficulty. The Society's gross income for the year has been £92,487; being an increase of £2,123 beyond last year. It has issued Bibles, 119,185; Testaments, 113,791; Prayer-books, 253,338; Psalters, 12,318; Other bound Books, 231,209; Tracts, 2,885,642. Total, 3,615,483.

The Church Missionary Society's anniversary was eminently interesting and important. The openings for usefulness are multiplying on every side; and the most cheering indications of the Divine blessing on the Society's labours are attested from various and distant lands. The intelligence from India, and especially from Kishnagur, is most hopeful and joyful; but New Zealand is a still more striking illustration of the power of the word of God, by the aid of His Grace and Holy Spirit, to soften down the most rugged savage nature, and to reduce it to the obedience of Christ. Had the present state of New Zealand, compared with what it was thirty years ago, been all that this Society had to shew for its toil and expenditure, we should still exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" The attestation of the bishop of Australia to the character of the missionaries, and the results of their labours, is most gratifying. There has been some discussion about the missionaries holding large tracts of land; but it does not appear that, with the exception of Mr. Fairburn, whose case the Committee has decisively and judiciously dealt with, the holdings have materially exceeded a decent provision for more than two hundred children of missionaries, who will be a most valuable class of settlers. Should any instances be proved to have occurred of inordinate accumulation of land by any of the Society's agents, the committee have pledged themselves to have the matter rectified; and the introduction of money payments, which begin now to be feasible, will in future obviate the danger to the spiritual interests of a mission, which might arise from large investitures in land. The Society's income for the year has increased to upwards of £100,000; but the arrears of last year are not yet covered; and unless strenuous exertions are made, the Society, instead of breaking up new ground, must eventually retire from some of its present scenes of prosperous labour.