THE MINISTRY AND THE PARLIAMENT. 



THE second session of the first Reformed Parliament is on the eve 

 of commencing. The campaign will be begun before these sheets 

 are in the hands of our country readers. The eyes of the nation 

 are intently fixed on the pending conduct of their representatives. 

 Never did a legislature meet under circumstances of greater 

 interest. The situation of the country is critical in the extreme. 

 Distress and discontent, to a far greater extent than a superficial ob- 

 server would suppose, exist at home ; while our relations with foreign 

 powers wear a most ominous aspect. The well-being of Britain and 

 the peace of Europe, will, in a great measure, depend on the pro- 

 ceedings of the approaching session. 



For our own parts, we look forward to the deliberations of the 

 legislature with fear and trembling. The past conduct of the mi- 

 nistry and the parliament unhappily affords too much ground for our 

 apprehensions. The expectations of the country from a reformed 

 government, and a reformed legislature, have been grievously dis- 

 appointed. If the ministry and the parliament do nothing more in 

 accordance with the spirit and exigencies of the country in the 

 approaching session than they did in the past, their own dissolution 

 will be one of the consequences least to be regretted. 



Hitherto their measures have been little better than a mockery of 

 the people's demands. The abuses in the church are numerous and 

 flagrant. Her dignitaries, while performing no duty, wallow in 

 wealth. The curate, on the other hand, whose labours are most ar- 

 duous and incessant, is doomed to receive a pittance so miserable as 

 to be scarcely sufficient to keep body and soul together. There is 

 the crying anomaly of pluralities that monstrous principle which 

 recognizes the right of an individual to receive the emoluments of 

 several livings, the duties of more than one of which it is impossible, 

 from their respective localities, he can discharge ; while the proba- 

 bility is, that none of them will be attended to by himself, but be all 

 entrusted to deputies, whose qualification for the office will be esti- 

 mated by the lowness of the terms on which they are willing to un- 

 dertake it. The circumstances under which church preferment 

 usually takes place are equally objectionable. Piety, learning, and 

 a scrupulously conscientious performance of clerical duty, go for 

 nothing. Every rich living in the church is disposed of to political 

 or family friends. Public opinion has been long and loudly raised 

 against these and other glaring abuses : it has demanded their im- 

 mediate and radical correction. How far have the ministry and the 

 parliament complied with that demand ? As yet they have not pro- 

 ceeded a single step in the work of church reform in England. In 

 Ireland they have pretended to do something of the kind ; but it is 

 only pretence. It is a gross misappropriation of language to apply 

 the term " reform" to any thing that has yet been done to the churcli 

 of Ireland. The Irish establishment, indeed, is so thoroughly a mass 



M. M. No. 98. Q 



