every observer. Dissent is in a rapid decline. It cannot conceal its shrunken and shrinking dimensions, by the shallow trick of throwing its cloak over the gross and disgusting bodies of jacobinism, chartism, infidelity and revolution. The features of these are not long to be concealed. Theirs is the bulk, power, and strength of the body whose furious clamour and pestilent activity agitates the people, and depresses the property, of the kingdom. Dissent furnishes little more than the cloak, by which they attempt to disguise their deformity and designs. It is not, as Mr. Miall would persuade himself, the young only, but it is the talented, the ingenuous, the well informed, and the serious and enlightened, who are leaving their ranks. Look at their Ministers. Thirty dissenting Ministers were mentioned a few weeks ago, in this diocese alone, wishing to be admitted into the Church. In the very Town in which we are writing, two cases have recently occurred; in one of which the renunciation of Dissent by its Ministers was attempted, and in the other effected. At St. Bees, there are constantly candidates, who desire to undergo a probation to be admitted into the Church. And it is notorious that those candidates are not of the inferior and illinformed class of Dissenting preachers, but usually their most pious and intelligent, and best educated*

We quote from the Macclesfield Courier for example, the following names of dissenting Ministers, who a few years ago took refuge in the Church from the strife and human devices of dissent.

"The Revd. W. Seaton, W. Anderson, R. Meek, T. Witty, Jacob Lenegan, J. Cottle, A. Bromiley, J. Blundell, J. Denham, W. A. King, J. Tucker, Calver, Mr. Gibson, and Mr. Field." The Dissenters, if they would, could enlarge this list by many more names which are not known to us; aye, and they could multiply the list by hundreds, if they would only tell us how many of their ministers are groaning in shame and disgust, under the loathsome cant and vulgar tyranny of the system; but cannot break their bonds, because they have no other choice but the bread of division or no bread at all. They remember with sighs the goodly and peaceful temples of the Church, the true honor

men, and men who make a sacrifice of worldly advantage for conscience sake.

Among the laity the same course of things is observable. Of whom are these young persons, alluded to by Mr. Miall, chiefly composed? They are generally the sons of those, who have acquired property enough, to enable their children to receive a liberal education, to mix with churchmen, to perceive the difference between the sham and noisy liberalism of dissent, and the real, but unostentatious and quiet liberality of Churchmen-to contrast the narrow minded and low prejudices, the coarse manners, the base devices of those, who compose the class with which they have herded, with the enlarged views, regulated deportment, and high principles of those, whom they had once been ignorantly prejudiced, to hate and abuse. Even the parents themselves, though with less facilities, and often restrained by a want of moral courage from renouncing associations, and prejudices in which they have been brought up, generally perceive, as they mix with higher grades of society, the vulgarities and fallacies of dissent, and feel their tie to become more feeble, as their knowledge of it and of the Church is extended. But, whatever question may be raised respecting the parents, that the offspring of those who have raised themselves to a higher station, are leaving dissent "in crowds," is a fact not only confessed by Mr. Miall, but too notorious to admit of question, even though Mr. Miall had not acknowledged it. The causes of this desertion may form an edifying subject of enquiry.

These causes may be contemplated in two points of view. First, with respect to the external circumstances of dissent. Secondly, with respect to its evil root, which has been manifested by an abundant and holy office of the lawful ministry, the Scriptural Unity of our Sion. By the waters of their Babylon, their abode of strife and envy, they sit down and weep for Jerusalem.

erop of evil fruits, and has been laid more bare by the operations of controversy. We will consider each of these.

1. The education, and position of Dissenters, both Ministers and congregation, has of late years been materially improved. Though there are yet many Dissenting Ministers in the lowest state of ignorance, yet generally speaking education is far more generally diffused than it was, And, as they become more educated, it becomes more difficult to bind their understandings in the shackles of bigotry and prejudice, and to close their eyes against the crimes and absurdities of their own system, and the reasonable, Historical, and Scriptural basis, on which the claims of the Church rest. A factious or violent partisan may revile the Church, or work himself up to believe himself right and the Church wrong, But the calm and educated inquirer must have his misgivings. He must see that all the mob claptraps about civil and religious liberty, are founded in falsehood, and addressed only to the passions and prejudices of the multitude; that, though the Church declares dissent to be sin, she can only offer caution and counsel; she neither has, nor desires, the power of restraining people from the free exercise of their judgment. If their judg. ment is contrary to hers, they will commit sin-she offers proof of this from both Scripture and history, but does not pretend to control their freedom of thought or action. She laments their folly, she warns them of their danger-she cries aloud, "whether they will bear or whether they will forbear"-but there she stops. Their civil and religious freedom she touches not.

But the misgivings of an intelligent dissenter will be yet more fearful, when he comes to examine dissent itself by the light of facts, history, and Scripture. The evils of bis system are then forced upon his

observation-he is made not only to see but to feel them. If he investigates, he finds all history against bim. He cannot trace the existence of his own sect beyond a century or two. He has no ancient creeds -he has no authority in History or Scripture, for the commission of his Ministry. He has not only the uniform testimony of the Church against bis sectarian strife and opposition, but he has the positive and repeated admonitions and censures of the inspired writers against divisions, setting up sects and leaders, each not only a separate, but hostile and bitter, body marshalling itself against the Church, under a Paul or Cephas or Apollos of its own creation and commission. The better a man is educated, the more he becomes alive to these conclusions; and consequently we find, as before observed, that the Ministers who, depart from dissent to the Church, are almost invariably not the most ignorant, or the least refined; but the ablest, the most respected, and those, whose contact with better society, or whose natural refinement, has acquired them esteem and preeminence among their flocks and their fellow Ministers. These examples are becoming, and will become daily, more general, as the Dissenting Ministers and members increase in education, and mix in circles, where they can see in a just light the character of the Church Clergy, and the claims of the Church. It will be soon impossible for these men to be boodwinked by others, or to deceive themselves into the belief, that the Clergy of the Church are such as their infamous calumniators represent them, or that the Church is the parent of evil, and dissent, with its hydra heads and dragons teeth, is the centre of unity and truth in which the brethren of Jesus Christ should dwell together as members of one body. Where education, talent, candour, and more extended views, apart from bustling agitation and clamourous faction, prevail among dissenting Mi

nisters, there you will find the class, from which those, who seek refuge in the Church, usually come forth.

With respect to the young, whom Mr. Miall describes as leaving them in crowds, the same observations apply. Dissenters are chiefly composed of the lower and less refined clases. The state of the manufacturing districts has led to the making of large and sudden fortunes, by individuals of these classes. These individuals themselves have been raised by the just and ordinary operation of property into another grade of society; but, perhaps for want of education, or from other circumstances, are prevented from moving in that position, to which their property, if connected with a liberal education would have introduced them. Even here they become like persons, who have ascended a hill. New prospects open upon them; they have a more extensive, as well as a more comprehensive, view than they had before. They see the real features of the adjacent country, and the relative proportions of the spot, which they occupied below. They see it now, not in the contracted horizon in which they beheld it formerly, but as compared with other positions and circumstances, of which they saw little or nothing, but through false, or imperfect descriptions, while their own views were confined to their former little circle. Many of these come over to the Church, on their views being thus enlarged. But they are not so numerous as the young; and for many obvious reasons. They have not had that education which may enable to dispel the prejudices in which they have been brought up; they do not sufficiently change their society, to counteract the old associations, and continued influence, of the Dissenting circle, in which they have lived and still more or less move. They have not moral courage to throw off what they have formerly professed, to resist the increased homage and flattery which their wealth