The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-02 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

NEWMARKET FIRST SPRING MEETING.
Monday Night.
soft", last night and rain this morning have done much towards
510,,11R the temperature, but a " southerly wind and a cloudy
no't with an occasional shower to keep them in countenance, d
Ita%l43tifY favourable anticipations in the item of weather.
.Fortu-
,vell the sport the rain kept off durinhe racing, which asa
very foicintracter as in quantity, afforded much. gratification
additional
PixtiN and fashionable company. We subjoin a few
Firstaprs of the sports •---
h—ace.-13ravo made running at his best pace till about half-
Cornay b:; A4en the turn of the lands, and the Duke's Stand, where
80etn went up and laid in front till within two distances of home.
ander then ran by them, and in the end won cleverly by a
enth.
Second
r;dae,"•---Colonel Peel's filly made play at a good pace,
the latter Gellatley lying with her to the ropes, where
out directlyr an attempt to get up and failed; Coquette came
Handicap after
and won cleverly by a length.
vvith hd'ea..--Aft al false starts, Skim-milk jumped off
o lead _ er several er
eellent La Nleprisce lying at her side, and the others in ex-
; they maintained this order to the cords, where3i
13m.riaseceeletPtees
bent up to Skim-milk ; St. Vitus, Arsenic, and. Lia
iinaking a rush at the same moment. After a beautiful race,
betweene°at won by a head, the same slight difference showing itself
Arsenic Skint-milk and St. Vitus, and between the latter
from
the 41i:red, nor was La Meprisee beaten more than half a length po • A finer handicap was never made.
dr_ Urth Race.—Jagger made all the running till they began to
appear
hill into the bottom, where Chymist went to his side, and
aTieared to have it all his own way ; inside the cords he challenged
"`,ll:Aight to have won cleverly, but showed temper just at the
piradZin only had his head in front at the chair.
Cowboy"ace—Quicksilver cut out the work to the bushes, where
toth took it thend won cleverly by a length.
S ro
fr. the mas were won cleverly ; but in that between
grons and Alendizabal the result was at one time very doubt,-
st,ip,rouhripoorrewf;taosuittoteitllt they were half way up the cords that
.Scroggins s
ena,b'ed him to get rid of his antagonist.
shown
racee begt of Cleavan's and Cowboy's performances s -ng °ll tlse 2,000 Guineas Stas subsegnwsasnt to the
Grey arnbcuzi Tose to 6to 4 while sto 2 went begging against
' "11131 9to 2 was betted' against Saintfoin, and to 1 offered
against any other.

7 to 1 a TNE DEASY.
gat Lord
to 1 Jersey's Pncenix--offer
_9 to 1 gist 111 r. Bland's Young. Rowton ed—take 8 to I
agst Lord G. Bentinck's Grey
12
to 1 agst Lord Suffield's Bamboo Morons
to 1 agit M. A • ' Nonplus colt—taken
.t 5 to Irmitage s
16 gst Colonel Peel's lon
600 t° 1 agst Lord Exeter's Alemdar
to so° laid on Scott's lot ao.ainst Phoenix and Young Itowton.

THE OAKS.
No betting; business vety flat.
I,he
fire 9. UeeniS plate of 100 GuTiunEeassi,'Lrr.mares ; four years, Bst. 411, ;
Lord i.-ars, 9st. 41b ; six years, 9st. 10110 ; and aged, lOst. Air. s..xeter's Velure, 4 ;rs to_Filbrook's La Me ' e 4yrs
1%7( Suffield's Arsenic,Pr"e '
r,, , 5 yrs
',lark4
s Battersea Lass, by Phantom, 5 yrs
The 2
~ 5t02 on Velure. Won in a canter.
for '41:1::°° Guineas Stakes, a Sweepstakes of 180 s4oibvs..each, h. ft.,
R.M. 29
%,,' r9e years old ; colts, Bst. 71b ; fillies, fist.
Lord r
'AO (1. Bentinek's r. o. Gre3 Momns, by C0mu5......J. Day 1.,
tord'rshorohill's Saingtfoin, by S.t. Patrick, out of Manglewurzel
3°
th. tele following
,r, uThold's Bamboo, by Cain, dam by Picton
also started, but were not placed:—Lord
Bond's
Ileve;,Altridar, by Sultan, out of 3larirella ; Mr.
rt,s 2niu.
ondo,,!r, out of Scurry, by Partisan ; and Duke of Beau or I
13 4Y Out
of
out of Scandal.
Greevtg-6 to 4 agst Bamboo, 5 to 2 agst Saintfoin, 4 to I agst
Wo' C.°41113, 8 to 1 agst Alemdar, and 12 to 1 apt Inuendo.
sr.4 uy a length. ,
"epstakes of 300 sovs. each, 100 ft., for four years old ; colts,
kr. is
vrevill Bst.' 71b ; and fillies, Bst. 21b. B.C. 10 Subs.
Lord s M
Mango
„, Ex , eteres. Adrian Brother to Augustus . J Day 1
' Chesterfield's e. Edgar, by Shakspcare, out of Eva's dam 3
'Arat h Won by two lengths.
ft. h. C-' 200 h. ft. A.F.—Lord Suffield's Cowboy, Bst., received
...,orn Mr. Thornhill's Egeria, Bst. 61b.
A,Alateh,loo, h. ft.—Lord Lichfield's Cassandra, Bst. 91b., agst
'3.• Pettit's Anne Boleyn, Bst. 21b. Ab. M. Off by consent.
The E - - .

..,arl of Eldon, on Monday evening, took the
death
and his seat in the House of Lords, for the first time after the
61. t he late Earl, his grandfather.
tendon Government have appointed Mr. Sieveright, of the
10
The ' c'st-office, to sueceed Mr. Bannatyne as Postmaster of Glasgow.
aztVate investigation into alleged misdemeanours on the part of the
42 has already led to various improvements.—Scots Times.

CHURCH EXTENSION.

Ti-11121) LECTURE.

Dr. Chalmers delivered his third lecture on Church Exten-
sion yesterday. Long before the hour appointed the room was well
filled with respectable person*. Amblig those who Were Ow ill front
of the r!l_trorm We notiez'd thd buke of VAnibtidge, Prince George of
Cambridge, the Earl of Abel-deell, Lord Montagu, Sir James Graham,
Mr. James Grattmths nlr J. Richardson, Mr. Pringle, Mr. Hardy, Mr.
I‘l, Ij. Roche, Lord Tcignmouth, Lord Colville, Mr. Poynder, the
Earl of Winchilsea, Mr. G. W. Hope, the Bishop of Chester, and Sir G. Sin.
clair. Notwithstanding the crowded state of thc room, through the kindness
and attention of Mr. Martin, the proprietor, our admission was effected
on this, as well as the former occasions, without any difficulty, and
every convenience afforded us. Shortly after two o'clock the Rev.
Doctor entered, and was received with much cheering. He said—The

subject of the day is the vindication of a national religious Establishment
in opposition to the views of those who allege that it is unnecessary. The
voluntary principle for the purpose of the present lecture may be considered
as divided into two heads, the internal and the external, the former
relying exclusively on its own resources, and the latter receiving sup-
port from extraneous voluntary contributions. Those who take up the
view of the anti-establishment assert that the voluntary principle ought
❑ot to be the principle of free trade —such is, generally speaking, the
sentiments and favoured expressions of our senators and economists ; some
think the Establishment uncalled tor, and others object to its being carried
as upon the principle of free trade. The doctrine of free trade in
commerce it was contended could not apply to the Church, but would
effect its damage. Those who said so aro not aware of certain am-
biguities which the voluntary principle involves, which, if fully exposed
and done away with, would go far to simplify the whole controversy
that has been raised upon the subject. When the matter is investi-
gated it will be found that those who at one time were the advocates
of free trade at another would be in favour of the voluntary principle;
and from the mouths of some individuals it will be found to have
been asserted that the voluntary principle and free trade are identical
If this was cleared up many of the difficulties that surround the

question would be done away with. It has been long ac_
knowledged, that instead of waiting till the demand for Chris.
tianity came, the better course was to dispense it widely, and let those
who wished to receive it have the benefit of it. There are those who
say that the adoption of such a course would be the reversal of all prin-
ciples of free trade; such, however, Ido not think is the case There
is no analogy whatever between its operation and free trade. Those
who dispense the blessings of Christianity do not receive their hire from
those who receive it, but from those whose wish it is to dispense it.
The system of free trade in Christianity requires something different
than the mere operation of demand and supply. The great mass of
the common people, the host that composes the body of every
commonwealth, require a knowledge of Christianity. The sys-
tem of a free trade in Christianity had grown up with time
and years under the name of the voluntary principle. There are
two species of the voluntary principle which had not been adverted to,
but which it was important to separate from each other. A man may
either mako a voluntary return in the shape of price, or he may
make a voluntary offer, in the shape of a donation, to support
the Christian minister who provides him and his family with the
blessings of religion. The one may be a voluntary payment, and the
other may not be. Now both these, though different in effect and ob-
ject, have been referred to the voluntary principle, and the result has
been that it has deranged or thrown backward the whole controversy,
when things so different in their nature, and which ought to be set
apart, were joined together.—(Cheering.) Many congregations,
from their own contributions, support their own Ministers; that is to
be put down to the account of a particular voluntaryism, because the
members of the congregation raise within themselves a sufficiency for all

their expenses; and as far as they have been able to accomplish this by
contributions, we will put it down to this object of external voluntaryism.
The one maybe called voluntaryism ab intro, and the other voluntaryism
ab extra. It will now be seen how far the voluntary principle is con-
ceded, and how far it is consistent with a free trade in Christianity.
Now, whatever comes from that source, whatever comes from their
willingness to give, is the produce of external voluntarism—it is a
bounty, at all events. The moment you draw upon external volun.
tarism, you draw upon the willingness of the parties to give ; you then
acknowledge the insufficiency of the voluntary principle for the proper
support for a religious and a moral education of the people. The
moment you draw upon the external voluntary principle which ap-
proaches near to the principle of the Establishment—the moment you
draw upon this principle, then let us hear no more of the sufficiency of
the free trade system in religion.—(Cheers.) Let us hear nothing
more of the free trade system—let us hear no more of the voluntary
principle being sufficient to support the free trade principle. It is set
aside the very moment the internal principle requires the aid
of the external principle. After such a complete refutation
never again let us hear of the two separate and distinct systems being
put in the same category. In real truth, the voluntary external system
offers as much violence to the free trade system as it does to the Estab-
lishment. A free trade in Christianity and external voluntaryism is in
fact neither more nor less than the same thing as a market price and a
bounty are in the commercial world. After this explanation I am
particularly anxious that we should all understand the real state of
the controversy. We have been told of the perfect sufficiency of the
voluntary principle ; but by that cannot be meant the internal volun-
taryism, for the short comings of that principle are made up by the
external principle of voluntaryism. To make up for the mil.
lions who are destitute of a place for congregating together,
as a deed of patriotism, it is the work of a Statesman or of a Government
to provide the means ; but that principle is resisted on the alleged suffi-
ciency of themeens provided by the voluntary principle. But I have
shown that those means are provided by the external principle, and eked
out by the internal. At all events, the question is now brought within a
narrower cempass than it has ever been before.—(Hear.) The only
difference between us now is, how are the means to be provided
and at whose expense—whether it is to be at the private expense of the
willing people, or by an enlightened and far-seeing Government, anxious
for the peace and happiness of their country, and more anxious still for
the highest weal of their fellow-subjects ?—(Loud cheers.) The advo-
cates of an Establishment hold that it is the bounden duty of the Govern-
ment to instruct, and to provide adequate funds for the purpose of the
proper teaching, of the people. Let those who are willing to pay for
more instruction, for private religious instruction, do so; it would be true
patriotism, but should not interfere with the duty of the State. We, as
a Church, nor as individuals, do not object to these supplementary
efforts of our brethren, to make up for the short.comings of
the Establishment. They, as it were, will fill up the blanks
and interstices which an increase of population must always leave
in the framework. In this land of perfect toleration there is no want
of liberty to try the great experiment—it has been tried, and upon a
large scale—and now, a) the end of a century, during which chapels
and meeting-houses have been built without either let or hindrance in
every part of the territory, let them say, arc all the churches, and all the
chapels, and all the meeting-houses sufficient for the vast population of
the empire ?—(Cheers.) I wish it to be distinctly understood that ex.
ternal voluntaryism has failed to provide for such a surpins population
as we now have. The existing number of our voluntary chapels repre-
sents the whole amount of what has been done by both principles of
voluntaryism. Over and above those places of worship, we have those
places devoted to the same purpose which are wholly supported by the scat
rents, and the still greater number of those which arc partially sup-
ported by the liberality of Christians. Still the unprovided millions in
the country showed they furnished an example of what had been pro-
vided by the two systems of voluntarism. These millions told of the im-
potency of both voluntaryisms, and of the boasted system of free trade in
religion. Besides all this, there is one other matter for which no pro-
vision has been made by these systems. What have they done com-
mensurate to the Christian education of thousands of British families ?

It is a question that may very properly be asked, how it is that while
shops and markets for the supply of these physical necessities keep pace
with the advance of the population, and that chapels and churches for
the supply of their spiritual, and therefore immortal, wants should fall so
far short of the necessity ? This speaks of the langour of the Christian
spirit, not only in the people who ought to supply themselves according
to their own doctrines, but also great langour on the part of the Church ;
and when in spite of all the talent and energy of our Dissenting brethren
we witness in the outfield of our National Establishments, which has
been now open to their interprise for several generations, such a spec.
tacle of religious difficulty and grievous destitution, with the myriads of
unreclaimed warriors whom their system has never reached, and far less
overtaken, we do apprehend that on the overthrow of this venerable in-
stitute, the Church of England, the same evils now so largely exhibited
in all the unprovided remnants of the country, would be realized and
multiplied over the whole length and breadth of the land.—(Cheers.)
NVe cannot consent to give up the whole territory into their hands, nor
can we think that men who have evinced so little power to rebuild, should
be somewhat less fiery and precipitate in their zeal to destroy. If in
taking the moral statistics of the land, we find that often, with the vo-
luntary efforts both of individuals and societies for the spread of edue a.
tion, a large proportion of the peasantry were found destitute of all good
scholarship, we should not feel it to be incongruous, but in perfect keep-
ing with our ideas, that the Government, in the exercise of its best and
highest functions, should snake advances of funds from the national
treasury for the erection of schools, and the requisite endowment of
teachers in every little section of the ten itory ; or, in other words, for
a commensurate scholastic establishment at the expense of the State ;
and what is true of common, we hold to be alike true of Christian edu-
cation. If in spite of all the strenuousness and zeal of our religions
philanthropists, we behold millions and millions more destitute of virtue
as well as of knowledge, with as little sense of inunorta.

lity as the beasts that perish—(Cheering),—and reckless
alike of their obligations to God and man, living in guilty abandonment
of all principle, which is at once ruinous to their own everlasting pros.
pects and hazardous to the peace and order of the commonwealth, then
if competent for the rulers of the State to provide against the nuisance
of a population untaught in letters, it is still more competent, we shoul
say still more imperatively binding, to provide against the still more,
hurtful and intolerable nuisance of a population untaught in morality
and religion. If it be lawful and incumbent on the civil magistrate to
aid the one object by means of national schools and schoolmasters, where
lies the objection to his achievement of the other by means of national
churches and national clergymen ?—(Hear, hear.) In other words,
you can discern no greater reason for a scholas!ic than for an ecclesiastical
establishment. There is a more emphatic call for the latter than for
the former. What is true of the small family of a household
holds true of the greater family of an empire. if both the parent in the
one case and the governor in the other be chargeable with guilty indif-
ferent:, and should suffer their respective families to be unschooled,
there is a guilt of deeper dye if they are suffered to remain un-Chris-
tianised.—(Hear, hear.) The fact is as undoubted that there does exist
a certain sensitive notion, and it is now generally avowed, as to the Go.
vernment overstepping the limits of its own proper and legitimate
functions, by charging itself in any way with the religion of the people in
the country. Thus it is held by the disciples of a certain odd and meta-
physical utilitarianism, that one of the chief properties of a Government
is that it should be quite unconcerned about, nay unconscious of the
religion of its subjects; as if, bereft of all vitality of sentiment, it were
reduced to a sort of mechanical automaton. Such is one of the
theories of our day, in conforming to which a Govern.
ment should, as a Government, be lifeless of all regard
to things sacred, and manifest a calm and philosophic indifference to all
the modes and varieties of religion ; and that they should refuse to en-
tertain the question—in which of the varieties of religion the people
ought to be trained—and that they ought not to interfere in the ques-
tion, whether or not the people are to have any religion at all. Now,
we protest altogether against this view of Government—against what
may be termed this artificial inversion of its idea. vs cannot forget
the human principles and human feelings of the individuals who com-
pose the Government, whether it be the humanity which glows in the
breast of the king upon the throne, or the humanity which appeals to
the sensibilities, and, as it does and ought, to appeal to the votes of a Parlia-
ment. A righteous and religious monarch, and righteous and religious se-
nators, must impress their character on their acts, nor can we understand
the distinction which is mooted in these days between Christian go-
vernors and a Christian government (Hear, hear.) We have no such
notion of the moral that we have of the physical chemistry, in the com-
ponents of which the properties of the ingredients may be changed or
disappear. The composition of a State cannot be thus denationalised,
or reduced into a sort of caput mortuurn, destitute of all soul and all
sentiment.—(Cheers and laughter.) The cold metaphysical abstraction
that is thereby engendered, may exist in the region of the ideal, but it
does not exist in the region of the actual, nor yet in the region of the
possible. The Legislative Assembly must not think they are to renounce
all care for the highest well-being of families, when called upon to delibe-
rate upon the well-being of a nation. A Parliament or National Assem•
bly does collectively give way to the true principles, or dictates, or feelings
by which the men who compose it are separately and individually actu.
ated ; for example, they have the desire that at least plain and popular
learning should be diffused throughout the mass of the community, and
so without hindrance will they vote away the nation's money, and that
for the support and establishment of schools, and for the sake of a general
scholarship throughout the nation ; or, with a still loftier cast of intel-
lect, they are bound on the enc !uragement of science, and so with like
freedom will they grant of the funds of the nation for literary societies,
and universities, and museums, and even botanical gardens, and

::"or for
all for sake of a lOftier lathing, or for the philosophy of the
I
nation ?
will they
•,,,,,1 4
0 i.l in theft 1.4'0 and yalt4 of the arts, ,
—purchase
the improvement of a nation's taste? Or
gallery of pictures, and that for !? .
,heir own funds,
'ntlhiafierne epnrttonidei aurckt'43fohlorre- thehBa°ruihr andecte:alxtl6a!tliin' l..
h recreation
will they listen to a tale of' suffering, and not from .—_
but from the funds of the State--(a laugh)—undertake the charge t,,,
relieving, as when they provided for the destitution of the Highlands,
or resolved at the expense of the nation on a voyage of benevolence for
the discovery and rescue of the Missirig ships detained during the winter.
in Greenland—atld this le obedienee to the call of a nation's humanity ?
—(Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Now we have Yee to ieafn, in the mul.
tiplicity of such proceedings as these, why a Legislature having in them-
selves a sense of the principles of religion, and bound to provide for the
moral and Christian education of society at large, why they should not
for the accomplishment of those high ends, from the monies of the nation
have an establishment of National Churches even as, for the accom-
plishment of other ends they erect national schools, na
tional universities, and public institutes of various sorts and descriptions
We cannot but imagine our antagonists reduced to this difficulty. The
Government provides for the scholarship, the taste, the health, and even
the amusements of the people; and yet our antagonists would tie up
their hands from providing for the morality of the community, and for
the education of the people in the principles of piety.—( Applause.) So
far from there being any weight of argument against such a dispensa.
tion, all the sound reasoning is in favour of it.—(Hear, hear) To
establish that conclusion it does not require even the spiritual comi_
derations to be taken into account. It is desirable on other grounds.
If the Parliament be not even composed of spiritual men—(Hear) -- i f
they be Utilitarians only—(Hear, hear, and laughter)--yet they must
admit the necessity that the people should be trained in habits of reli.
gion.—(Hear.) Neither the improvement of the taste of the people, nor
of their scholarship, will so tend to diminish the expenditure of a na-
tion, as their education in Christianity.—(Applause.) It is to that edu.
cation the aphorism of Burke may truly be applied—that " the educa-
tion of the people is the cheapest defence of the commonwealth."—(Ap.
plause.) If we shall still " have the poor always with us," and poverty
should not be utterly banished from the land—it we cannot
have Christianity universal, still the general education of the great
body of the people in Christian principles and habits would
greatly reduce the expansive-evils of the community. By the religious
education of the whole population there would be an effectual preven.
tion of crime, which would be cheaper than its punishment.—(Hear.)
There would be a like saving in the prevention of pauperism—and an
actual provision to meet those exigencies which at one time in England
absorbed an expenditure three times the revenues of the church. From
this an argument might be drawn,which would convince the understanding
of the most arithmetical Member of the House of Commons.—(Laughter.)
The religious education of the people would diminish the burthen of the
parochial maintenance of the poor, and it would diminish the expense of
the military and constabulary forces which were required to restrain
and overawe an untaught and irreligious community.—(Hear, hear.)
And all these are expenses far beyond what would be required for an
Establishment, to make the people orderly and Christian. Nor
would that require any greater outlay than those funds of our
own, which the voluntaries are endeavouring to seize upon.—
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) But if what we wanted was to
create a new, or to extend a deficient establishment, and for this pur-
pose advanced our claim upon the public treasury : that claim could be
defended or maintained not only on the grounds of religion, but even
on the lower grounds which those persons take who make the question
one of polity.—(Hear, hear.) The main object of those Christians who
desire to maintain and extend an Established Church is that the
people should be Christians, and should have a knowledge of
the life that is to come. But it is not merely upon that
ground we would ask for it ; but also upon the grounds which
are taken by those who hold that the Government is bound only to look
to matters which belong to the life which we are now in. The
Christians regard the question as one relating to the life that is to come.
But the patriot and the statesman should support an Established Church
for all those other considerations which belong only to this world.—
(Hear.) I have shown, Gentlemen, that there is really a connexion
between a Church Establishment and what is called the Voluntary
System, although we never hear them mentioned in the same sentence,
except as antagonists.—(Hear.) I trust that I have clearly shown
you that the Voluntary System is not antagonist to a National
Establishment,but on the contrary, a force combining with it.—(Hear.)
Although at the same time the principle of a National Establishment is
the very antipodes of the doctrine that every man should pay for his own
religion.—(Hear.) The total abandonment of the great mass of the
people to themselves, on the supposition of internal voluntaryism, is a
polity which is now given up, at least in practice, and that too by secta-
rians, as well as by Churchmen.—(Applause.) Innumerable are the calls
of the voluntaries to the public for pecuniary assistance, and those calls
are responded to; for the Christian public are aware that religious
benevolence is the best of all kinds of benevolence.—(Hear, hear.) But
if you approve of our accepting that benevolence from individuals, how
can you object to our accepting it from the State ? (Hear, hear.) This
question will be one of the many examples, in which the voice of the
country is found to have influence and controul over the acts of the Go-
vernment. Let the sentiment prevail, that it is good for the Govern-
ment to supply the means of Christian instruction to the whole people,
especially to those who are not able, or who may not be willing to
provide it for themselves, and all that we seek will be done.—(Hear,
hear.) We are not attempting to thwart the voluntaries, but to
enlarge their system.—(Cheers.) It is not to be feared that a popular
Government will establish a Church without the conviction of a pre-
ponderating filling in the public mind of its necessity; or without an
appeal from those who contribute the most largely to the public reve-
nue ; and in that case a contribution from the State to the wants of the
Church will be no more than a sample of external voluntaryism. It
will only differ from personal contribution by the channel of conveyance,
as a mite given from an individual hand differs from a mite cast
into a common treasury for a similar object.—(Bear, hear.) A na-
tional establishment can only be the result of an anterior tendency in
the breast of thousands, which finds expression and confirmation in the
act of the Legislature. Whatever Is contributed by the State is only
another instance of external voluntaryism. In other words, a parlia-
mentary grant is only the act of external voluntaryism on the part of
the majority of the people who arc represented, and who pay most to the
revenue, instead of being the act of individual voluntaries. It is only
the principal of internal voluntaryism—or the assertion that that prin-
ciple was sufficient for the religious instruction of the whole people
that was opposed to a national establishment. But the moment they
apply to external aid, and such is the case with the voluntaries of every
denomination all over the country, our point is practically conceded.
We have had a recent illustration of this in respect to Scotland.—(Hear,
hear.) It is by a moderate estimate of ecclesiastical destitution we af.
firm, that at least half a million of inhabitants who ought to be church.
goers, have no right of occupancy in any place of worship, whether in
the established or dissenting meeting-houses ; and the population thus
rapidly overgrowing the provision originally instituted for supplying
them with the lessons of the Gospel, having increased since the days of
John Knox, from one million to two millions and a half—now, it has
been left chiefly to the energies of internal voluntaryism, to meet and
make provision for this enormous deficiency. And the result is, cer-
tainly, that not more than one-third of the unprovided-for population
have been overtaken. At all events, there remains so great a number
to be provided for, as compared with the increase of population, to a
million—these, it is to be remarked, consisting mainly of the common
people, the most helpless, because the least able, and upon the habits of
irreligion, arc found the least willing to help themselves. For it can.
not be too much insisted upon, that they are not the poorest of the coin-
munity who attend meeting-houses—that a higher grade than them do
—the better part, perhaps, (of course with many exceptions) of the lower
and middle class of shopkeepers, master-tradesmen, with doubt.
less a small proportion of the better condition among the arti.
zans, and even of the labourers. It is on these latter that
the evils of ecclesiastical destitution have principally fallen;
the working classes, and their families who have been laid
in consequence under a great moral calamity—(Cheers.) It is for
their relief, for their benefit, the scheme of Church extension has been
formed.—(Cheers.) Where is the truth of the representation that we
arc seeking a boon for the Church, when the end and spirit of our
enterprise is to obtain, at the hands of the public, and the hands of the
Government together, a boon to the common people ?—(Cheers.) In the
prosecution of this enterprise, we, in the first instance, have been try-
ing the strength of external voluntaryism. In virtue of many appeals
to Christian benevolence, we have undertaken the erection of ISO new
Churches, more than half of which are now in progress of building,
and nearly half of which are completed, and indeed opened for the regular
service of the sanctuary. And it was highly instructive to us when our
friends the voluntaries, at the outset of this great operation, thought they
saw in it the triumph of their own cause; and said, we had at length
given into their principle and become voluntaries ourselves.—( Laughter.)
It is true that in defect of their internal voluntaryism, in the utter defect
of their " free trade" system, which with perfect freedom for enterprise,
and the utmost strenuousness in the prosecution of it, has left without
the blessings of the Gospel half a million who ought to have been
Church-goers, and a million of general population,—it is true that under
these circumstances we are attempting, by the liberality of others, to
do for our unprovidcd thousands and tens of thousands, that which their
poverty, and their unwillingness together, have prevented their doing
for themselves. And we are glad to understand that the voluntaries
allow this—that in anything there is a community of sentiment between
us. We can bear to be told that in our endeavours to repair the defences
of our Church, we have had recourse to the voluntary principle, for
thus far is our share of it. Most heartily should we have rejoiced had
their internal voluntaryism sufficed for the moral and religious wants
of our countrymen; and it is only because this has fallen short of the
object we had in view, that we have taken an onward step to external
voluntaryism. We should further rejoice if in the sufficiency of
this sy stem we found no additional exertion called for. But this has
not been our experience ; and therefore have we taken another step
onward, and having gained all we can from a pious and philanthropic
public, are we now endeavouring to obtain as much more as we can
from a philanthropic and paternal Government.—(Loud cheers.) And
we are not in the least sensible of the least incongruity between these
two applications. They are not conflicting, but conspiring, mo-k-
-ments---the following up of one step by another along the line of
contiguity.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") Having obtained
from the goodwill of our countrymen the sum of 200,000/. for the
erection of places of worship for a people unable to build churches for
themselves, we now stand before the Government, not in the attitude of
supplicants, who ask for our own personal advantage, but rather in the
attitude of donors, telling them what is our contribution, and asking
what is theirs.—(Loud cheers.) We have advances! in our march, and
whereas our friends, and most vigilant guardians, the voluntaries of
Scotland, allege of us that we have come over to their principle,—lie-
cause of this our appeal to the liberality of the Christian public,--from
the first moment of their preferring a like appeal themselves, when they
saw the deficiencies of the seat rents of their own congregations ;
from that moment did they abandon their own, and come over to our
principle. We cannot blame them for this, believing, as we do, that,
but for the benevolence of the Government, the Christian instruction of
the people never would be provided for. We have been gifted with one
sum by a willing Christian community in Scotland; and we expect,
sooner or later, to be gifted with another sum by a willing House of
Commons in London. After having obtained the support of these two pas-
ties, our pugnacious opponents will be quite welcome to call us voluntaries
if they please ; only we hope that it will serve to rectify their conceptions
if they make the discovery that even the voluntary principle
which
they allege to be altogether against us, is, if viewed comprehensivele,
in favour of National Establishments for the Christian education of the
people.—(Cheers.) So little have we any doubt of the perfect harmony
the contributions of external voluntaryism, and grants from
the State, the one will, we have every confidence, appear to be the
stepping-stone to the other. And in the very proportion that we en-
large the first, do we strengthen the latter. So thorough is this our
conviction, that the discouragement we have lately received from our
rulers will only redouble our exertions; and if the voice of 180 con-
gregations do not carry an endowment, the voice of 200 or 300 will at
least come nearer to it.—(Hear, hear.) We are resolved not to desist
in our exertions for a cause which has enlisted in its favour the friendly
and approving suffrages of the great mass of the common people of
Scotland. Yet this, we are told, is but the cry of the en-
franchised population—of the men who have no suffrages—
no weight in the Senate House. We believe, on the contrary,
that the cause of the unprotected and the poor, when it comes
i to be really understood, has mighty influence there.--(Cheers.) We 00t
only began the enterprise under the countenance and support of the
highest orders in the country, but even in that class which constitutes I,
the greatest number of the Scottish constituency—the 10/. householders
and a little upwards—whose prejudices were strongest against us :
among them we are every day making sensible progress, and no
doubt, if we persevere, we shall be enabled to lift a still louder ap-
peal than heretofore—so that there will be a greatly augmented inte-
rest in our cause on the part of the British public and the Bri-
tish Legislature; and we shall eventually attain our object.—(Cheers')
We did intend to dwell upon another topic on the argument which is
founded on the difference between the endowment and the erection of
Churches, but we have no time to do so. We trust that this will both
explain the system of the efforts which the friends of our Church, 'most
'of them clergymen from Scotland, are now making in London. The