it is beneath the dignity of the Legislature, to own itself mistaken? Surely our Parliament does not lay claim to this practical infallibility. On the contrary its fallibility has been too often evinced and acknowledged of late years, by the necessity for new Acts to correct the errours of those recently enacted and there is a becoming confession of this fallibility in the provision attacht to every Bill for its amendment, if needful, in the course of the same Session. As to the argument on which so much stress was laid, that, unless one of the Welsh Sees is abolisht, the new See of Manchester cannot be erected, because it is impossible, in the present state of public feeling, to obtain the admission of another Bishop into the House of Lords,-for my own part,-although we might justly urge that such an addition to the spiritual peerage ought not to be scrupled at, when such large additions have been made in the last two centuries to the temporal peerage, still, for my own part, I would much rather see a new Bishopric erected, the incumbent of which was to have, no seat in the House of Lords. Not that I am insensible to the advantages which the Church, and the far greater advantages which the State derives from the spiritual peerage (D): but I know not whether an addition to the number of the spiritual peers is to be desired. The present number are amply sufficient to exercise a powerful influence in all questions in which religion and public morality are concerned; whereas a larger number might have too much weight in the struggles of political parties. At all events no observer of the spirit of this age would expect to obtain any large addition to the spiritual peerage. Therefore,

since the object we are anxious for is a large addition to our spiritual guides and governors in the Church, I should hail the establishment of a single See unconnected with the peerage, as setting an example, which will remove this difficulty, and therefore may more easily be followed.

You will not deem, I trust, that, in what I have been saying, I am either trespassing on matters which do not properly come under our consideration, or speaking of subjects on which you feel no immediate interest. For who can think of the spectacle which England at this day, in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, must present in the sight of heaven,-who, knowing anything of the schism upon schism whereby the Church of Christ is torn in this land, can call to mind how painful this sight must be in the eyes of Him who came in order that all His disciples might be one-who, having heard of the terrific revelations which have recently been made concerning the state of our manufacturing towns, can try to picture to himself what foul blots they must be in the sight of an All-righteous God, to whom the sins of the Cities of the Plain cried so loudly for vengeance, -who can think of these things, and not feel a longing to contribute what help he can, in thought and action, toward the removal of these withering plague-spots from our nation? And the more firmly we are persuaded that the Church which Christ establisht, with its sacramental ministrations, and the word of life committed to its keeping, is the only efficient remedy for all the evils upon earth, for the social evils no less than the individual, the more anxious shall we be to see that portion of it which has been set up in this land, put

forth all its energies, all the power with which the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove can supply it, all the power which Faith can draw down from heaven, or gather from any corner of the earth, so that our exertions may be in some degree commensurate to the enormous exigencies of the times.. Moreover all who know how important it is that an army in time of danger should be well officered, and that the officers should be familiarly known and honoured by the soldiers under them,- all who feel the value: of order, and subordination, and government, especially all who recognise the importance of Episcopacy for the well-disciplined action of the Church,

more

will join me in wishing that the Episcopal Body in England were really able to meet the wants of the age. I have heard it said in apology for the defects. of the clergy during the last century, that the fault did not lie so much in them, as in the officers set over them, and that, if they had been better officered, they too would have done their duty better. We cannot however get rid of our sins, by casting them on the shoulders of our rulers: least of all can we do so in this case. For whence are our rulers taken? do they not come out of our own body? Assuredly too they have not generally been unfavorable samples of that body: nor would it be easy to name many, among those accounted orthodox churchmen, of whom it can be asserted, that they ought to have been selected in preference to the main part of them. No, my Brethren; for our failings, whatever they may be, we alone are responsible; for even if we had not ecclesiastical rulers to exhort and encourage us, yet the Spirit of God was ready.

to give us all the strength that we needed, had we only sought it from Him. But on the other hand, while we recognise the full weight of our own personal responsibility, we may feel that, humanly speaking, we should have more strength and wisdom to encounter the many evils which beset us, if our Bishops were able to dwell more amongst us, and to take a more active interest in our parochial concerns. We may feel this to a certain extent even in our own Diocese, though it be one of the smallest; and, if so, like wants must needs press more urgently in others. Nor is it censurable presumption, if we, who are under authority, take upon us to utter our thoughts and desires concerning these matters, the decision of which rests with our superiors, provided we do it calmly and respectfully, and know how to submit and wait with patience, if our desires are not immediately complied with. Surely too none of you, my Brethren, will say that, though these matters might appropriately be brought before the Clergy in other larger Dioceses, they are not such as you personally are deeply concerned in. For is not this one of the great blessings of Christianity, that it widens the range of our sympathies, that it stretches the ties of neighbourhood to an unlimited extent, that it makes us feel a lively interest in that which is far off? This was seen among the first fruits of the Gospel, in the zeal with which different Churches ministered to each other's necessities: and now in these days, when all the modes of communication have been so multiplied and improved, and when our very bodies may be transferred, in a portion of time which would have seemed incredible to our fathers, from one end of the

land to the other, now, when the narratives of the events of the day and the discussions about them, have almost superseded all other objects of study,we ought at least to learn this lesson from the many facilities granted to us, that they are not given to us for our own convenience or profit or amusement, but to the end that we may feel ourselves more closely knit and united to all our fellow-countrymen, so that the whole English people may stand as one man in the presence of God.

This, it seems to me, is the real purpose of all our mechanical improvements. By facilitating our mutual communication and correspondence, they should enliven our sympathy with each other, and our efforts to help each other. Yet how far are we from using them to such an end? On the contrary have not our local attachments been sadly relaxt by our growing homelessness? Is not the tendency of our so-called mechanical improvements to root up our ancient hereditary affections, to sever the fluxional body of the upper classes still more from the stationary tillers of the soil, and to render us more than ever the slaves of evanescent novelties and insatiable satiety? The last twelvemonth has made the most appalling disclosures touching the social and moral condition of England. The unsoundness of much of our boasted strength, the hollowness of our wealth had indeed been manifested plainly by many symptoms before and it had been long foreseen and predicted by such as discerned the unsoundness and hollowness of the principles on which our social edifice was constructed, and by which the actions of our governors and legislators were swayed. So too was it foreseen