nocence and beautiful virtues of a class of beings, who in reality are as profligate and as dishonest as any who frequent the filthy lanes of crowded cities. In thus bravely lifting up the veil which screened the real character of a large portion of our fellow creatures, he not only performed a task which no ordinary genius could have accomplished, and which raised him to a very high rank amongst the poets of his age, but one which merited the thanks of every patriot, for painting in true and vivid colours, the moral condition of our peasantry, and pointing out to the legislator the means by which it is to be ameliorated.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LIVING BISHOPS, AND OTHER EMINENT DIVINES.

THE CHURCH IN MODERN TIMES. THE ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY, YORK, AND DUBLIN. THE BISHOPS OF LONDON, DURHAM, WINCHESTER, BATH AND WELLS, LINCOLN, ST. ASAPH, BANGOR, CARLISLE, ROCHESTER, LLANDAFF, CHESTER, OXFORD, GLOUCESTER AND BRISTOL, EXETER, ELY, RIPON, NORWICH, HEREFORD, PETERBOROUGH, LICHFIELD, ST. DAVID'S, WORCESTER. THE REV. HENRY MELVILL. THE REV. CHRISTOPHER BENSON.THE REV. JOHN LONSDALE.-THE REV. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH.-THE REV. FRANCIS WRANGHAM.-THE REV. HUGH M'NEILE. THE REV. GEORGE CROLY.--THE REV. HUGH STOWELL.-THE REV. HENRY STEBBING.-ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE. THE REV. FRANCIS CLOSE. THE HON. AND REV. BAPTIST NOEL.

THE Church of England has in these modern times, without forfeiting any of her essential principles, evinced such a readiness to accommodate herself to the necessities of the times, as sufficiently establishes her claim to be considered as a great national church. She has shown her disposition "to keep the mean between the two extremes of too much stiffness in refusing, and of too much easiness in admitting " variations in her polity; and asking of the old time what was wisest, has not failed to ask of the new time what was fittest. Since that period when her foundations were laid, broad and deep, by her temporal founders, the constitution of the empire has undergone great changes. Since then have we, by the gallantry of our soldiers, the sagacity of our statesmen, and the enterprise of our merchants, extended the bounds of our dominion to distant lands and foreign climes

"Far as the breezes bear the billows' foam
Survey our empire! behold our home!"

LIVING BISHOPS, AND OTHER EMINENT DIVINES. 373

Through the vast peninsula of the Morea,-the rich islands of the West,-the wide fields of Southern Africa,-the broad fields of the Northern America,-the mighty continent of Australia, floats the British standard; and British laws-British institutions-the influence of British civilization, and British manners are felt throughout a

space

"Wider than Roman eagle wing
E'er traversed proudly free."

All this supremacy obtained by a little island so insignificant in its geographical position and in its numerical population, demonstrates the workings of an over-ruling Providence. Why were the weak things of this world thus chosen to confound the mighty, and why was the sovereignty of ancient and illustrious nations thus committed to the hands of one, whose power and eminence date but from yesterday? Surely for some great purpose, seeing that sovereignty, like property, has its duties as well rights! The Church of England has become a Missionary Church, and has obtained for the country with which she has been blessed, the praise, that it has planted the flag of the gospel by "strange waters."

But it is not in what she has done for our new fellow citizens, that the praise of our church in modern times consists. Her influence has penetrated our legislationit has abolished barbarous and cruel laws-our jurisprudence is no longer written in blood-it has broken the chains of slavery-it has raised the poor, but industrious classes, the helots of labour- and into the administration of law it has introduced a spirit of mildness and equity unknown to earlier times. "Quid leges sine moribus?" asked the acute satirist of old; and it is perhaps in the im

provement of manners that the modern principle of the church most strikingly consists; these it has softened, purified, and elevated. It has inspired our literature--it has ennobled our sentiments. But a century ago, and religion was the scoff of the great-the fool's jest, and the subject of mirth to ribald debauchery. The age of the Spectator, was the age of our grandfathers; and what a record is that of the manners of its times. The upper classes scorning the restraints of morality, and despising the bonds of decency, were fast hastening our country to the condition of France, where the licence and luxury of the nobles and the demoralization of the court found no check, until nobles and court were swept away in torrents of blood. This would have been our fate, had not the Church of England existed: it was she who stood between the living and the dead-between those who despised her ordinances, and those who worshipped at her altars-and the plague was stayed. But France-her church corrupt-preferring man's traditions to God's word-fallen from the truth, and without the spirit of the truth, she wanted the "ten righteous," and fell.

See our history subsequent to that fearful period, which with fear of change perplexed monarchs-the world was united against us : legion after legion of the bravest soldiers in Europe threatened our national existence, and we survived the conflict, because England was heart-whole. She had a pious church, which abiding in truth and blessed for being in the truth, shed light and comfort around, and by its holy ministrations, strengthened the failing arm and sustained the sinking heart. It is such things as these which bind a nation together:

"Peace hath its victories

No less renowned than war."

Our church has throughout its history been a steady witness to the truths of christianity, She has always seen at her altars a large body of the faithful, "ever travelling to Jerusalem, with their faces thitherward." But her lustre has at times been more widely diffused than at others. We may notice in our own time, a more intense and anxious zeal for the Evangelism of religion-a more earnest love for gospel truth, as distinct from mere morality-a more ready recognition of the especial claims of Christianity as a revelation to be believed, and not as a system to be accepted because it appears to our reason true, " which is no more than we could do towards a suspected and discredited witness."

It is our high privilege to see our church proving herself day by day more and more worthy of the vocation wherewith she is called. We have amongst us her champions—as intrepid—as enlightened, spiritually and intellectually, as any that have preceded them. It is with pride that we attempt to portray their excellencies and note their victories, and we do so with an earnest hope, and sincere belief, that, when they and their generation belong to the past, the battlements of the Church will be defended by others not their inferior in zeal or in wisdom-in purity of purpose, or in activity of beneficence.

THE RT. HON. AND RT. REV. WILLIAM HOWLEY, D. D.,
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND,
AND METROPOLITAN; A LORD OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS; AN OFFICIAL
TRUSTEE OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM; A GOVERNOR OF THE
CHARTER HOUSE; VISITOR OF ALL-SOULS, BALIOL,

AND MERTON COLLEGES, OXFORD; HARROW, DULWICH,
AND KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON.

This venerable prelate was born in Hampshire in the year 1765. His father was vicar of Bishop's Sutton and Ropley, in that county, and a prebendary of Winchester