DISSENTERS' MARRIAGES.

ONE of the most important of the Parliamentary Returns that have been published this session is one moved for and obtained by Sir R. Inglis, with a view to shew to what extent the dissenters have availed themselves of the act passed at their urgent solicitation, whereby they are permitted to marry in any form they may chance to fancy. It will not be forgotten, that for many years past the political dissenters have put "foremost in the file" of their grievances the being obliged to conform to the church of England in the article of marriage. Well; the grievance was redressed, and there is now full evidence of its trivial nature in the eyes of the dissenters themselves, and consequently of the real motive why it was put so prominently forward. The paper is entitled, "Return of the number of places licensed for the celebration of marriages; and number of marriages celebrated other than according to the rites and ceremonies of the Established Church, from the 30th June to the 31st December, 1837 ;" and in order to convey some idea of the number of those marriages performed in dissenting chapels, private houses, and register offices, in Bristol and a few other leading places, the following extract from the return has been published :

"Bristol Clifton Bedminster

Bath

:

"At the foot of the document a note is appended, stating that no returns have been obtained from six districts; and that "the returns from all the remaining districts; being 219 in number, state that no marriage has been celebrated therein other than according to the rites and ceremonies of the Established Church, under the provisions of the Act 6 and 7 William IV., c. 85; and that no licence has been issued or certificate granted, by the superintendent registrars of those districts respectively, from 30th June, 1837, to 31st December, 1837." "This is undoubtedly a very painful exposure for the dissenters; but we shall make it more so before we have done with it. In this return are included the marriages of Roman Catholics, who never expressed any anxiety about the bill, and of many members of the Church of Scotland, who should not be classed amongst the dissenters; so that we think we are under the mark when we deduct one-third, or say 580 from 1745 (the total number of grievance unions in six months) which leaves 1165, or rather better than ONE MARRIAGE to each matrimonial office under the act.

"In the same return which supplies us with the above figures, we find that the number of marriages celebrated in the established churches of London, within the same period, was 6033-viz., 5109 by banns, and 924 by licence. That is, nearly six times as many marriages have been celebrated in the churches of London alone, within the bills of mortality, as have been celebrated under the new act, in the whole of England and Wales (including London of course)."

* Where the dissenters return Lord John Russell.

THE CHURCH IN CANADA.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL OF the UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

The humble petition of William Bettridge, Bachelor in Divinity, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Rector of Woodstock, in the Province of Upper Canada,

SHEWETH,-That your petitioner was deputed by the late Bishop of Quebec, the Bishop of Montreal, the Archdeacons and Clergy of Upper Canada, to make known to the authorities in church and state the spiritual destitution of vast multitudes of our fellow-countrymen, members of the church of England, in that province.

That your petitioner has submitted his credentials to the most reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate.

That your petitioner has presented his humble memorial to her most gracious majesty the Queen.

That your petitioner has communicated to her Majesty's Government the extent and character of the spiritual destitution of Upper Canada; that his appeal for an effectual alleviation has been acknowledged to be just in its principle, as appears by the following quotation from a letter addressed to your petitioner, in answer to such appeal:-"Lord Glenelg subscribes, without hesitation, to many of the grounds on which the claims of the church of England are enforced in your memorial and letter. He adopts your opinion, that the provision at present made for the maintenance of the Bishop of Quebec, and the clergy of his diocese, is inadequate to the great end of maintaining the episcopal church where it at present exists, and of extending its operations throughout the Canadian provinces. His lordship deprecates, not less decidedly than yourself, the system which would leave the ministers of religion dependent on the precarious support of their various congregations. He is of opinion that the permanent appropriation of funds sufficient for their decent maintenance is to be classed amongst the highest and first objects of national policy."

That these Christian and constitutional principles, however, so ably and satisfactorily propounded by her Majesty's government, must necessarily remain inoperative unless your honourable house decide that the appropriation of funds necessary to alleviate the spiritual destitution complained of be a "legitimate use of the revenue of the United Kingdom."

That your petitioner humbly craves permission briefly to advert to the peculiar difficulties and privations of the church in Upper Canada, by stating, that his Majesty George III., by message to parliament, expressed his royal desire that a "permanent provision" should be made for a "protestant clergy" in Canada; that in order to secure this "highest object of national policy" "in all time to come," the act of 1791, (31 Geo. III., c. 31,) called the Constitutional Act of Canada, appropriated one-seventh part of the crown lands of the province for endowments for the clergy of the church of England (sections 38, 39, 40); that an attempt was made to lease a portion of these lands; that the inadequacy of such a provision for the maintenance of the clergy soon becoming apparent from the fact that grants of land in fee simple might be obtained from the crown at mere nominal prices, the imperial parliament passed an act in 1827 (7 and 8 Geo. IV., c. 62,) to authorize the sale of 100,000 acres annually, or, in the whole, of one-fourth of these lands; that the sum of 70,000l., (more or less) has been vested in the public funds as proceeds of these sales up to the commencement of the current year; that for thirty years no doubt was entertained on the meaning or construction of the

act of 1791; that a claim was then advanced by the church of Scotland for a share in these lands; that this claim was succeeded by others from various denominations of dissenters in the province; that the law officers of the crown expressed their opinion in 1819, that the church of Scotland had no right to any participation in these lands for parochial endowments, although it might be allowed a share in the rents and profits of them; that the dissenters had no claim whatever to the lands; but that the church of England had a right to all the lands for endowments; that the discussion of these various claims has generated much bitterness and animosity in the province; that the legislative council and the church of Upper Canada have repeatedly expressed their urgent desire that the imperial parliament should settle these contentions by a fresh act declaratory of the body or bodies to which the legal right belongs; that hitherto the imperial parliament, the only authority competent to decide the simple, yet important question, has made no alteration in the acts of 1791 and 1827; that rectories have from time to time been established; that the proceeds of the sales of the clergy reserves have hitherto, in Upper Canada at least, been employed exclusively for the purposes set forth in the act of 1827; that the expectation was confidently entertained and expressed by the late respected Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne, in his despatches to the imperial government, that the interest arising from such sales would soon produce an income sufficient to provide a becoming maintenance, not only for the clergy then existing in the province, but also for such an addition to their numbers as the increase of the population might require; that parliament, in consequence, it would appear, from various debates had on the subject, withdrew a grant of 15,600l. made annually to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from whose funds the clergy in Upper Canada had hitherto been exclusively maintained; that the expectation of Sir John Colborne has not been realized, neither indeed can be for many years (the present interest arising from the clergy reserves sales scarcely exceeding 2,000l.); that the immediate consequences of the withdrawal of this annual aid were most injurious, the remote ones plainly subversive of the best interests of the province; that, on urgent representations being made, the imperial government acceded to the plan of making the crown revenues of the province chargeable with such a portion of the incomes of the missionaries as might fail to be supplied from the proceeds of the clergy reserves; that this measure of most urgent necessity contained, however, two stipulations plainly detrimental, if not destructive, to the best interests of the church-viz., that the successors of the existing clergy should have no provision, and that any increase of funds which might arise from the sales of the clergy reserves should be devoted, not to the indispensable addition of ministers according to the growing wants of the population, but to relieve the crown revenues of the province; that, in consequence, at a time when, from the vast influx of poor emigrants from the parent state, additional succour was needed by the church to fulfil its high duties to the people, a sudden and insurmountable obstacle was raised to its future usefulness; that several of the clergy have been released from their earthly labours, and their places remain unoccupied; that hundreds of new settlements, composed exclusively of indigent persons, have reiterated their urgent demands for the ordinances of the church; that, on the lowest computation, 100,000 members of the church of England are utterly destitute of religious instruction; that these individuals are located in distant places, accessible chiefly through the worst possible roads; that, according to the declared opinion of the late reverend Bishop of Quebec, supported by the written testimony of many of the clergy, one hundred travelling missionaries, at least, are needed for the present exigencies of the church; that the church of England in Upper Canada, moreover, is suffering incalculable injury from the need of a resident bishop, it being obviously impossible that one bishop (of Montreal) should execute the functions of the episcopate over a territory of 1,400 miles in extent, and containing a population of more than 1,000,000 VOL. XIV.-Sept. 1838. 2 Y

souls; that her Majesty's government have expressed their readiness to issue the royal mandate for the consecration of a bishop exclusively for Upper Canada, but have distinctly refused to grant him an income; that the nation, having chosen the divinely-appointed episcopacy of the church of England for its religion, appears bound, at least in all cases where the poverty of the people, as in Upper Canada, obviously requires it, to provide for the administration of all its ordinances; that the refusal to do so must issue, although your petitioner is far from imputing any such intention to her Majesty's government, in a continuous infringement of the religious liberty of the poor members of the church; that Christians of every other denomination are at liberty to exercise their peculiar discipline over their flocks; that the Roman catholics of Upper Canada have a bishop paid by the government, and large funds also for the maintenance of their priests, independent of their right of tithes from their own people; that a salaried bishop is refused to the church of England; that thousands of her people cannot, therefore, enter into the privilege of full church membership, as they are deprived of the rite of confirmation, which the church holds to be of apostolic authority and usage; that numbers of churches are yet unconsecrated; that the scattered clergy are without an overseer and counsellor, and that, unless a bishop be appointed, and effectual pecuniary aid be given to him to increase the numbers of the clergy in some measure proportionate to the wants of the people, until the clergy reserves be sufficiently productive to afford them a decent maintenance, the established church of England in Upper Canada must decrease in efficiency, and her members necessarily lose that high character of devotion to the time-hallowed and blood-bought institutions of the land, for which they have ever been distinguished.

That your petitioner humbly submits these facts to the consideration of your right honourable house, with the prayer that your right honourable house would adopt such measures as the urgency of the case may appear to require. And your petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

WILLIAM BETTRIDGE.

AN ADDRESS FROM THE COMMITTEE OF THE LAY UNION FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH, ON THE SUBJECT OF THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR.

THE education of the children of the poor is a subject which has lately claimed and obtained a considerable portion of the public attention, and is daily increasing in interest and importance; and, from its intimate connexion with the well-being of the community, it is exceedingly desirable that the present position of the question should be accurately understood.

Until within the last four years,-in each of which a small parliamentary grant has been made for the erection of school-houses in England,-whatever was done in this matter was attributable solely to the spontaneous exertions of Christian benevolence. Our charitable foundations owe their existence to the religious munificence of past ages; and, within the last thirty years, a variety of new efforts have been made by Christian zeal and liberality to meet the increasing wants of a rapidly augmenting population. And had the state remembered its duty, and properly filled up the outline of a church establishment bequeathed to it by the piety of our ancestors, there would have been, in all probability, but little cause for complaint, in the present day, as to the want of popular education. But, from a forgetfulness of this duty, it has followed, that in various districts of large population, and of great religious destitution, vast masses of ignorance and immorality have accumulated. While, however, this is freely admitted, and while it is also readily conceded, that it is the duty of the state to take immediate measures for the removal of these

evils, still it is not right that the fact should be overlooked,-that for all the provision which has yet been made for the education of the poor of this country we are indebted solely to the efforts of Christian benevolence.*

Now, those who have at various periods, and especially in the present age, devoted their time and their substance to these philanthropic endeavours, have ever had in view, not the spread of a system of merely mechanical instruction, but the diffusion of moral principle, by the inculcation of Christian knowledge. In their view, the power of reading, and the acquisition of some elementary knowledge in science, constituted, not an end, but the means to an end. Education, to be worthy of the name, must embrace, or rather consist in, a moral training, a grounding of the mind in religious principle, to be acquired by a course of instruction in the facts and doctrines of Christianity. It is upon this view that the whole of the education now provided for the poor of this country, by the efforts of Christian benevolence, invariably proceeds. A new theory of education, however, has been put forth within the last few years, the chief feature of which is, the inculcation of mere secular or "useful" knowledge, as it is termed, to the virtual exclusion of that knowledge which alone can make us "wise unto salvation."

This new system is chiefly advocated by a body calling itself "The Central Society of Education." That society does not consist, as its title would seem to import, of an union of all those who had laboured longest and most succesfully in the work of the education of the poor. On the contrary, it rather opposes, and seeks to render useless, all their labours. It has no connexion with, and exhibits no friendly feeling towards, the "National Society;" it opposes, and is strenuously opposed by, the "British and Foreign School Society." It emanates, in short, neither from the church of England nor from any of the sects dissenting from it, nor from any other body connected with, or concerned in, the work of education. Its leading members, on the contrary, are chiefly known in the arena of politics; and the main drift of their exertions evidently is, to change, by "liberalising," the character of the education now given to the children of the poor.

The proposition now urged upon the government and the legislature, by this "Central Society," is,-That a Board of National Education shall be formed, and provided by the state with sufficient funds to conduct the education of the children of the whole of the poor: that this board shall train masters, and establish schools, throughout the country: and that the system of education to be adopted shall, in effect, exclude all religious instruction; either by confining it to such topics only as are admitted by all, or by merely allowing the clergy, and religious teachers of various denominations, to lecture or catechise, at certain fixed hours in each week, such of the scholars as may choose to attend on them.

Now, there can be no doubt that while, on the one hand, the establishment of public schools of this kind, endowed by the state with ample means, would operate to wither up and destroy those which are now supported by voluntary contributions; so, on the other, the system proposed to be adopted would be, in effect, an irreligious system. By irreligious," we mean a system from which religion is purposely and sedulously excluded. We are aware that the advocates of the proposed change frequently profess their intention, that the education contemplated in their theory shall comprehend a religious training; but, whatever their professions may be, their practical proposition always resolves itself into this alternative: either that the instruction given shall be such as to be inoffensive to the professors of all creeds, and the

* The number of children in the schools in union with the National Society amounted in 1832 to 400,830; in 1835, to 516,181; and, in 1838, may be estimated at upwards of 600,000. The total number of church-of-England schools, in 1837, was ascertained to be 16,924, and the number of scholars to amount to 996,460.