4 Europe, and the English Parliament. QJuLY, 



tion which, in his humble opinion, formed the ground of that great 

 superiority of moral character for which this country had been so long 

 distinguished." 



Lord Grey was called up by those observations, and made, what he 

 seldom fails of doing, an eloquent and specious speech ; but to the main 

 point of Lord Winchelsea's, his answer was sufficiently ominous :— 

 " Now he (Lord Grey) was a Protestant, and a member of the Church 

 of England, which he believed to be the best church in tiie world ; but 

 when the noble Lord talked of the necessity of an intimate union be- 

 tween that country and the state, he (Lord Grey) was compelled to say 

 he recognised the necessity of no higher union than the protection which 

 was due to that church, to support its ministers in the proper discharge 

 of their duties." 



Yet, even this was not enough, and the premier, confident in his 

 strength, gradually spoke out with a plainness which it was impossible 

 to misunderstand : — " If the noble earl meant a political union, if he 

 meant to make the members of the Church of England parties to the 

 support of political power, he would tell him that the church had very 

 seldom exercised that power, with advantage to themselves, and often 

 with great detriment to the public. (Hear.) I trust, therefore, it is not 

 to me that the noble earl imputes hostility to the church. I wish for 

 Protestant ascendancy, but I wish it to be obtained by a conviction of 

 the superior truth of the doctrines of Protestantism, and to be upheld 

 by the exemplary conduct and piety of those who are to expound its 

 doctrines." 



We respect the privileges of the House too much, to venture to de- 

 scribe the meaning which those words bear in our eyes. But, we have 

 heard the same words so often from the regular assailants of the Church 

 of England, that we find it difficult to believe that they could have pro- 

 ceeded from a Protestant peer. On this point we shall say no more. 

 The wildest speculation of the present House of Commons will not go 

 the length of breaking down the Church, and thus there will be, at 

 least, some time interposed ; some senator, worthy of the name, may ex- 

 pose the fallacy of the repubhcan dreams of purifying a Church, by- 

 destroying its means of existence ; of reforming the manners of a clergy 

 by throwing them into the basenesses, popular compliances, and popular 

 corruptions of a perpetual canvass for bread ; or of purifying the habits 

 of the country, and strengthening the hands of the state, by virtually 

 compelling the clergy to become demagogues, to take an eager personal 

 inteiest in every party and public change, to be the perpetual advocates 

 for change, and to bring to their new alliance with the politics of the 

 mob, the passions of the enthusiast. Let a clergy be once salaried 

 by the state, and its dignity in the public eye perishes at once. On 

 the first real or fancied emergency in the state, its salary is curtailed ; 

 and this process goes on, until no salary at all is paid, and the clergy 

 are di-iven to subsist on the precarious bounty of the subscribers to 

 their chapels. The next consequence to which, must be, the shap- 

 ing of their doctrine and style to the doctrine and style of their 

 diversity of congregations ; in other words, the extinction of all national 

 regularity and decency in worship ; the advocacy of every absurd mis- 

 conception of Christianity, in its turn ; and a crop of Socinians, Deists, 

 and abettors of every new foolery of the populace, until the whole issued 

 in one common tide of infidelity. 



But the bill is still subjudice. The debate will not take place till a 



