ALLEGED GEEATEK HARMONY OF SECTS. 411 



clergy true to themselves and the people were the six 

 teen thousand priests of the Church of England alone 

 to take a leaf out of the pastoral book of their most 

 dreaded adversary the force of reason alone, not only 

 without the aid of legislation, but, as of old, in spite of 

 legislation, would easily enable them both to maintain 

 their own and to carry war into the heart of the enemy s 

 camp. 



It has been observed by some English travellers, and 

 even made a matter of boast by American clergymen 

 during their visits to England, that the clergy of all deno 

 minations live on more harmonious and friendly terms 

 with each other than they do in this country. But they 

 mistake, I believe, who attribute this to any important 

 difference either in the Christian temper or in the religious 

 sentiments of the clergy or of their people in the two 

 countries. The great source of the heart-burnings, dis 

 contents, and battlings among the clergy of different deno 

 minations in Great Britain, is to be found in the difference 

 of social position and political rights which they severally 

 occupy. A clergyman of the Established Church can 

 rarely associate, either in public or in private, with a 

 Dissenting minister, without assuming, or having conceded 

 to him in some form, a degree of superiority, which the 

 Dissenter, perhaps a man of both more mind and more 

 learning, sees with pain, feels to be uncalled for were the 

 law equal, and probably in his heart resents with more 

 or less indignity.* And feelings of a similar, though 



* Many Dissenting publications show the existence of such feelings, 

 which human nature indeed cannot well suppress. In the Protestant 

 Dissenters Almanac for 1851, the expression of them is frequently re 

 peated in various forms : for instance, rt There is a spirit of exclusion 

 in society, little to its credit. The Non-conformist is not allowed to 

 mingle on equal terms with the Churchman. In how few cases are 

 Dissenters advanced to the honours of literature which are given in 

 profusion to Conformists of far inferior accomplishments. In almost 

 every selection of men publicly known to fill offices to which some 



