same position in society. It was a mass of heterogeneous elements, differing in education, in views, in hopes, in social station, and only held together by one overpowering principle, that of unlimited, unquestioning obedience.

Under this state of things, the Church was mixed up and amalgamated with every class and condition in life—with all the business and all the amusement of mankind, none were so high that ecclesiastical authority could not control them; none so low that they could have no clerical friend, nay confidant. Auricular confession was but an additional clamp in the framework of the Roman power, which would have remained almost as firm without it.

This could only be compassed by calling from among "all sorts and conditions of men" the component parts of the ecclesiastical body; by educating them as much and a little more than their fellows, but keeping them in the same station, with the same wishes, the same companions, the same prospects. Hence there was no separation, save that of superior assumed sanctity, between the priest and his former humble companions; he attained, it is true, influence over them; but it was because, though a consecrated person, he still remained in them, and among them, and of them. The little leaven leavened the whole lump; their friend interested them for the Church, claimed for the Church their obedience, and taught them her doctrines; and every one had his clerical friend so to direct and influencehim. Thus, from the very highest to the very lowest, there was not one person acknowledging the authority of the Roman See who was not accessible by one of Rome's ministers.

Now to a certain extent this was the case among the English clergy up to nearly the middle of the last century. Paley assures us in so many words that it was so, and his direct testimony is confirmed by the indirect testimony of a vast number of essays, plays, poems, and novels. But few among the clergy were educated at the Universities-fewer still were scholars, for a college degree was a very different thing then to what it is now. Smollett represents Abraham Adams as a learned man, but it is evident that had he pleased he might have been as ignorant as Trulliber: he had no motive to study save a love of learning, for it procured him no other honour than that of disputing with a lady's maid.

In the present day, a man enters the ministry in the hope (often, we allow, miserably disappointed) that it will procure for him, if not affluence, at least respectability; that his family will have the necessaries of life, and he himself be entitled to appear

in the world as a gentleman; he expects, in short, a living more or less valuable, as he thinks more or less highly of his own talents or his own connections. Nor let it be said that this is unjustifiable. "He who serves the altar must live by the altar;" and if a poor man, when ordained, tells his bishop that he is totally indifferent to preferment, we should hold that bishop amply justified in taking him at his word.

But in the days to which we refer men entered the ministry with no expectation beyond the poor pittance to which they were entitled as curates. No University degree, little, if any, theological learning was needful; and the curate, in birth, rank and expectations, if a little above the labourers, was certainly considerably below the farmers of his flock. The working clergy of small towns occupied a position a little higher; those of cities a little higher still; but as their congregations were also proportionably higher, the relative condition of the minister and his people was the same.

Thus far then the situation of the Anglican Clergy and the constitution of the Anglican Church, bore a strong resemblance to those of Rome. The Bishop and the Dean influenced the nobleman; the Archdeacon and Chancellor were potent with the baronet; the Rector and the Vicar hunted, drank, and quarrelled with the 'squire; the chaplain associated with my lord's butler, and the curate with the same functionary in the squirely circle.

But this similarity, on which the great Paley congratulated the Church, had one working among Romanists, and another among Protestants: in the one case it produced zeal, in the other case apathy. A century ago reverence for the Church was in England a mere tradition, and like all mere traditions it was rapidly dying away. The clergyman lived with and like other people; he partook, too often alas! of the same vices, and almost always of the same prejudices; he had neither the assumed sanctity nor the arrogated authority of the Roman priest, and what was gained to the Church on the one hand by the amalgamation of the clergy and the laity, was lost on the other hand by the absence of any claim of authority on the part of the Church herself. In addition to these drawbacks, there was no unity of purpose, no "esprit de corps" among the Anglican priesthood; each regarded himself, not as a member of a great body appointed to do a great work, but as the isolated minister of a single parish, seeking perhaps to do good, but seeking this desirable object by no more effectual means than his own individual influence and popularity.

The Church of Rome, on the other hand, however ill educated in other respects her ministers might be, taught them, at all events, the comparative worthlessness of individual and the preponderating energy of combined exertion-proved to them that their great strength lay, not in being learned men or eloquent preachers, but in being faithful and accredited ministers of the Catholic Church. She did not undervalue learning, or talent, or eloquence; but she made all these things not principals, but accessaries, in her grand work of subjugation; she made use of each in its proper place, and rendered even enthusiasm and fanaticism serviceable by directing them into channels favourable to her power.

These elements developed themselves in the mendicant and other orders of friars; and the Roman Church, instead of suppressing them and thereby turning their arms against her own bosom, stamped them with her mark, and sent them forth under direction imperceptible to them, but not the less irresistible, to do her work.

These three causes, viz., a lofty and uncompromising assumption of apostolical authority, an intimate connection with all classes of society, and the power of adapting even the fiercest prejudices to serviceable ends, have combined to give both stability and extension to the Romish apostacy; and because one of these was in abeyance, viz., the claim to apostolical authority, and another never possessed, viz., the power of enlisting prejudices, the Church of England daily lost ground, even though she did enjoy what Paley considered the great advantage of an intimate connection with all classes of society.

The Church was then like an infant; mature in point of age she undoubtedly was, but since the Reformation her powers had lain dormant, her faculties undeveloped, she knew not what she could do. Her present position gave her but little claim on the respect or the gratitude of the laity, and the only reason that she continued undisturbed was, because her rivals were as lethargic as herself.

It was under these circumstances that the great revival of religion took place, in which Wesley, and Whitefield, and Lady Huntingdon, and their companions, took so distinguished a part; nor can we be surprised that the clergy, who were not respected for their office, nor revered (generally speaking) for their characters, sunk gradually into disrepute, at least among spirituallyminded men. No stress had been laid on apostolical authority; every man had been allowed to form his own creed, and now, therefore, there was a contest in public opinion between the

slothful and apathetic clergyman, and the zealous and enthusiastic sectary.

But while apathy seemed the distinguishing feature of the British priesthood, it must not be forgotten that the revival of religion took place as well within as without the pale of the Establishment; and we have in former numbers detailed at length the causes which gave sectarianism an undue apparent prominence. The revival was not confined to schismatics, and it has gone on gradually but steadily increasing, till now the vast majority of the clergy are so correct in their conduct, and so spiritual in their preaching, that, as a body, they are not only highly respectable, but highly respected.

A change like this could work but one effect-to belong to a highly respected body, must reflect on the individual member some distinction, for the sake of the body, and thus the first step is taken in the change alluded to The principle is not the true one, but room is given for the true principle to develope itself; and he who respects the minister of God, because the body to which he belongs is respectable, will soon learn to respect him for his apostolic commission.

It would be needless to go over again the ground which, in the present, and the three preceding numbers of this Review, we have taken as to the authority of the Church and the commission of her ministers. We will but remark, that the office of a clergyman is now gradually recovering its consideration, and, thanks to the earnest searching into antiquity now more and more encouraged, the relation of the minister to his flock bids fair to be clearly and extensively understood. But while an advance so gratifying and so important is made in one respect, the Church has lost one of her old advantages: she no longer reaches so easily and effectually all classes of her members as she once did. She does, indeed, claim and support her apostolic dignity and authority, and has thus recovered one of the weapons which rendered the papacy so mighty; but, at the same time, she has dropped from her grasp another scarcely less important. The very means by which she had regained the one, have caused her to relinquish her hold of the other; and this brings us to the present social position of the Anglican clergy, and the effect the new system has had upon society.

It has long been remarked that the emolument produced by any class of employment is in an inverse ratio to the diguity derivable therefrom. This, however, is now less true than it used to be, seeing that the emoluments of all employments are pretty well curtailed. Still, if a profession, by its nature, confers any

VOL. IX.-E

kind of distinction, it will be cheerfully embraced by many who would not willingly have committed themselves to one more profitable, but less gentlemanlike: thus there are hundreds who would rather live on two hundred a-year as a physician or a barrister, than make five hundred behind the counter of a grocer or a cheesemonger. We do not defend this feeling; nay, in many cases, we utterly despise it, because it is a ridiculous affectation in the parties who profess it. To see the son of a shopkeeper sneer at trade, and perhaps despise the industry which enabled his respectable father to make a fortune and will only enable him to make a fool, is disgusting in the extreme; but since the feeling-justifiable in some parties, and unjustifiable in others— does exist, we must take its existence into our account, and deal with it accordingly.

The superior social position of the younger clergy has had the necessary effect of rendering the profession more popular— has thrown an increased and increasing number of candidates into the field, and thereby raised the standard of admission. First, a degree of classical information was required—then an especial training under approved masters-then a residence in some specified institution-then an University degree. This last requirement augmented the number of students at Oxford and Cambridge, and thus raised, first the qualifications for the degree, and then the qualifications for admission; all these changes tended to advance the already great respectability of the clergy, and to induce a higher class of men to take on themselves the inferior offices of the Church. The increased expenses, too, of the Universities have had a similar working, by gradually making the body of the clergy not only more respectable, but more aristocratic.

The consequence of this has been in one respect good, and in another evil: the tone of manners and the tone of feeling has been raised in the ecclesiastical body, but an unwillingness -nay, an unfitness has been induced to mingle freely among the class of shopkeepers and persons in similar station. Now, so far as the community is to be regarded as having great power and exercising great influence, these are the persons who form the bulk of it; and the Church loses much by having no order of ministers who can, or no order of ministers who will, enter into friendly relations with such among those who want no relief in a pecuniary point of view, who want no advice as to their temporal affairs (at least not from the clergy). It is the friend of the family whose voice is listened to-whose opinion is laid up in the chambers of memory-whose counsel is sought in times