deceased disciples by a Tariff consisting of many steps, according as burials were in open ground, in vaults, in catacombs, in family graves,―a Tariff still augmented by dues for "desk-service," for "early-hours," for "leave to erect monuments, grave-stones, and tablets?"

Sir, we will not insult you, by asking you if such a system is Apostolic. No! we only ask, Is it rational? Is it decent? Is it tolerable? Who can calmly reflect upon it, without a sense of horror stealing upon the soul? How degrading, how deplorable is the condition of such men! Their parent provider is the destroyer of their species and of themselves! Their sumptuous table is daily spread by the horrid hand of Death! They do not, like the Poet of Impiety, drink out of a skull; but their goblet is filled with the tears of the widow and the orphan! Yes, they

The wreck of other families is the building-up of theirs! The widow's weeds are brocade to the parson's lady! The parish hearse is "locomotive" to the Rector's coach!

Sir, let us look again, and look more deeply into the system. Is it compatible with the spirit of the office ministerial? That spirit is emphatically one of delicacy, disinterestedness, and generosity. It is utterly abhorrent from that of the cormorant, the harpy, and the vampire! The apostles appeal to the Searcher of hearts, that their covering was not a "cloak of covetousness," and to the churches themselves, that they "were gentle among" them, " even as a nurse cherisheth her children." Paul knew nothing of "fees" and "fittings," and taxes as endless as they are remorseless. Hear him: "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel." Thus it was with every pastor of his times. In no case did their interests conflict with those of their followers. How different was the condition of an Ephesian Elder from that of a London "authorised" Clergyman! The latter, it may be,

"From noise and riot most devoutly keeps,

Sighs with the sick, and with the mourner weeps."

But still, for his interests, the more sickness and the more mourning, the better. Sickness is the bud of the tree whose fruit is death; but to the parson it is the tree of life. Mourn

ing is his mint. The interest of the parson runs wholly counter to the interest of his parishioner. A plague of the ancient type, if he escaped it, would make his fortune. To his Reverence, pestilence is opulence! His chief and perennial benefactors and supporters are inflammation, apoplexy, dropsy, asthma, cholera, gout, palsy, croup, convulsion, and consumption. Health to the public is penury to him! Like Samson, he gets his honey out of carcases! With what a zest does he peruse the Bills of Mortality! To-day, behold him at the bedside of his dying parishioner, exhorting him, after the Rubric, to "suffer patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses :" at the same time "admonishing him to make his will and to declare his debts ;" and then praying for him thus: "When thou art pleased to take him hence, take him to thy favour." Thus much for acts of compassion to the soul of his "good brother." Now for his body. A few days afterwards behold his Reverence, the same man again, or his agent, at the mouth of the sepulchre, demanding a heavy tax-it may hap just twenty shillings sterling— on the dust of his "good brother," as the price of its passage to the bosom of its mother earth!

Sir,—to avoid being debased in mind and heart by such a system, must not a minister be either less than a man, or more? Can you teach the clergy that they have a vested right in the dead bodies of their flocks, without blunting their moral feelings? Must not these circumstances of their position exert an influence upon them, not to be resisted by intelligence, by education, or by piety? Do not such circumstances fully account for the clerical enormities we perpetually hear of in all parts of the country, enormities perpetrated without fear, or shame, or remorse? Take for example one of the least odious of these enormities-the triple tax. What would the Highland heroes of your "Clan," or the high-minded Lowlanders of your native country think, or say, or do, on being exposed to the exaction of triple taxes, by two parochial Clergymen, for the corpse of a son or daughter, a father or mother, dying in one parish, and being buried in another, the incumbent, clerk, and sexton of the former parish demanding and receiving full fees, because the body was taken out of it, and the incumbent, clerk, and sexton of the latter parish demanding and receiving double fees,

because a stranger was brought into it? Only think of the effect of so barbarous an outrage in Scotland! Would not the first exaction be the last? Sir,-

"Thou art a Roman; be not barbarous ! "

Take another fact of recent occurrence. At a late meeting of the Geographical Society it was stated, that "among the diseases of the Indians of South America, the small-pox was the most prevalent and destructive, and that out of a population of 240,000 souls, no less than 30,000 fell victims in the short space of four months. This prevalence is attributed to the circumstance that the clergy will not encourage vaccination, because great part of their revenue is derivable from burial fees."

Do reflect upon these things, and be not carried away by an unthinking sentimentality. Be not bewitched by the charms of clerical courtesy, nor blinded by the caresses of a Mitred Lord. Is not death in itself a penalty at all times sufficiently afflictive to survivors, without the aggravation of enormous as well as unjust fiscal additions; and these, too, imposed by the hands of men whose province emphatically it ought to be, to heal the wounded heart, and to wipe the mourner's tears? Sir! -If the domain of cruelty and extortion is to be extended in England, and their reign prolonged, let not the deed be perpetrated by a Scotchman! Let the Bishop look for

"other instruments

To see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel,

And mutually participate"

with him in his schemes of aggression and of aggrandisement!

But, Sir, there appears to be nothing irksome to the clergy in this state of things. It really seems to be their native element. They rather deprecate than desire reform. Their conduct in regard to the new Cemeteries, looks

"As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on."

It is not easy to conceive of any thing more degrading and discreditable than the position in which the clergy have deliberately placed themselves relative to the Kensal-green, Westminster, Highgate, Tower Hamlets, Nun Head, and Norwood

* See Westminster Review, No. lxxii. p. 213.

Cemeteries. The Acts by which these places are established, provide that the Clerical Tax shall be paid half-yearly; and "for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of Fees payable to the Incumbents of the several parishes," the Companies are compelled to "cause books to be kept, and entries to be made therein, of the names of all persons interred within the consecrated part, and the names of the parishes or ecclesiastical districts from which such persons respectively shall have been removed, and the mode of their interment within the said Cemetery, (distinguishing whether in a vault, catacomb, or brick grave, or in the open ground,) together with the date of such interment; and such books shall be at all seasonable times open to the inspection of the incumbents for the time being of the said several parishes, or ecclesiastical districts." Here, again, it is proper to remind you of the infamous conduct of the Cemetery Companies, who with these words and much more to the same effect, in their respective Acts, staring them in the face, have the effrontery to publish from day to day, to all the world, that "no fees whatever are payable by the parties to any parish FROM or THROUGH which bodies may be removed for interment in" their respective Cemeteries! No truly, not by the "parties," for then the secret would get out; but by the Companies, who disingenuously collude together to plunder the public that they may pamper the parson!

Now, Sir, to you we appeal, and call upon you to say, whether this system belongs to the class of things which Paul designates "lovely" and "of good report ?" Is it not a truly primitive and Apostolic sight for the clerks and agents of the respective offices of these Cemeteries, to see the clergy of all the parishes in and round London for many miles, twice a year trooping to the said offices-to hear them calling for the said books,―to view them poring over such books pen in hand, calculating the profits of calamity and death, making out the account and demanding payment? Is not the sight full of moral beauty? How truly Apostolic! But irony gives place to indignation. How loathsome an avocation to persons possessing any refinement of taste or delicacy of feeling! Ought the ministers of religion to be exposed to the blighting influence of arrangements so revolting to a generous mind? Sir,-Why do you propose, by

your Bill, to extend and perpetuate the abomination? The land of your forefathers is disgraced and polluted by no such exactions. Could any power on earth induce the people of Scotland to submit to imposts so oppressive and so iniquitous? If the people were won over, their Ministers never could; they would be the first to lift up the voice of indignant abhorrence against it!

Sir,-In your zeal for the dead, why do you forget the living? Had you combined both, we should have thought somewhat differently of your plan. Your Bill had then been so far consistent. Why does it not enact, that, from and after a given period, the clergy should cease, in companionship with the worm, to feed upon corruption? Why not let the living support them, and let the dead descend untaxed into the tomb? Surely we may be allowed at least to die untaxed! If you will close their grave-yards, why not avail yourself of the circumstance to provide for them by means at once decent and honourable? Leave all such abominations to Popery. Let the foul spot be removed from the Protestant banner! The system is fraught with a double wrong; it is a curse to religion and a curse to its ministers! It ought to be straightway abolished, and they who prefer and profit by the labours of the clergy should be allowed to enjoy the privilege of remunerating them. But if justice must still be outraged by the compulsory taxation of one man for the support of the religion of another, we implore that we may be taxed alive, not dead, that the pain and degradation of payment may rest with ourselves and not devolve upon our survivors. If it must be, tax our going out and our coming in; tax us from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot; tax meat, drink, air and light; tax sleep and vigilance, smiles and tears; tax all for the support of the church, and take all in default of payment; but pray touch not our shroud; pass by our cold clay! Do leave us a free passage to the grave, that we may quietly descend where we shall be taxed no more!

November 7, 1842.