from her face, and her foul features are known. If God preserves us but for a few years, we shall have enrolled in our ranks a sufficient number of matured and zealous champions, well able, if they remain faithful, to sustain the conflict against the overbearing insolence of the vaunting Goliaths of democracy.

But the power of those who fight in the first ranks is not that on which we must chiefly rely. The Church must set herself diligently to revive the ascendency of true principles amongst the millions; all her sons must bestir themselves. We must provide religious instruction for the masses of our people. We must carry out to the utmost the sound education of the rising generation;—we must revive the faith, and humility, and obedience of former days, and imbue our people with the true spirit of the Christian Church. These are the means whereby we must resist Satan's machinations, and ward off the impending ruin. If the mass of our people were sound Christian churchmen, there would be no fear of revolution. And to secure this wholesome state of things, it will need the strenuous exertions, as well as the earnest prayers, of all good men in every rank and station, in every city, town, and village. No man can be a sound member of the Church without possessing influence; and this influence, whatever it be, whether by word or deed, by sacrifice of ease or wealth, by self-denial or activity, by money cheerfully contributed, time willingly afforded,-all must be exerted in the cause of peace and truth. In a word, if we would preserve our country from desolation and anarchy, if we would prepare peaceful days for our children, yea, if we would save many perishing souls from death,-we must join with heart and hand, each in his several station, resolutely and perseveringly to repair the bulwarks and enlarge the boundaries of God's true Church.

Such was the substance of our Christian Citizen's political creed. Far from separating religion from politics, as some modern theorists, contrary to the practice of every age of the world, would have us do, he considered religion to be the basis of national as well as individual happiness; and the maintenance of Christ's true Church to be the great safeguard and palladium of England.

The young clergyman cordially assented to the arguments of his excellent friend; and even the liberal Mr. Raffles acknowledged that they contained much semblance of truth.

"Describe the Borough;" though our idle tribe

May love description, can we so describe

That you shall fairly streets and buildings trace,
And all that gives distinction to a place?

Cities and towns, the various haunts of men,
Require the pencil; they defy the pen.

It is the fashion in the present day to attribute far too much influence to our great manufacturing towns. No doubt they contain a vast and important population, whose wants and interests ought to receive due attention, but not more so than the wants and interests of the same number of inhabitants scattered in a thousand villages. It is quite a gratuitous assumption, that the intelligence of the manufacturing population is greater than that of the agricultural.

Compare the individual condition and attainments of the common artisan and the labourer, and I question whether the latter has any cause to be ashamed. The artisan's whole life is spent usually in one work, which he performs well, we readily allow; but he knows little else beyond his particular branch. Day after day is consumed in watching a loom, filing a knife-handle, or twisting a pin's head. The village labourer, on the other hand, is employed in the care of various domestic animals; he knows all their habits and wants, and is commonly well versed in the various interesting details of husbandry and the operations of nature. Nor do I think that, if you compare them man with man, the moral or intellectual character of the countryman can for a moment be considered as inferior to that of the townsman. But I will not proceed with the comparison. Whatsoever may be the moral condition of our manufacturing population, they are what we have made them, -or rather, what we have suffered them to become. Let us look to it, that we furnish them with the means of improvement. Already the vices of our cities have begun to spread themselves over our country population. The gin-shop and newspaper have poisoned and demoralised the minds of thousands. Still, let us hope that there remains much that is sound and good in many of our rural districts, -yes, and in our cities also, if we did but cultivate them as we might.

But besides the population of our great towns and villages, there is another numerous class amongst which, notwithstanding the fatal tendency of late years, may still be found considerable remains of loyal, religious, and old English feeling, perhaps more than in any other portion of the community,— I mean the inhabitants of our smaller towns. There are many hundreds of old provincial towns which

contain within them a large amount of sound intelligence, right feeling, and hereditary worth; and I question whether the time will not soon arrive when, from the position which they occupy between the agricultural and manufacturing interests, the voice of our provincial towns will be far more influential than it is. The exertions which are now being made by the Church to introduce a sounder system of education amongst the middle classes, exertions which they for whose benefit they are chiefly intended seem disposed rightly to appreciate,-will, if I mistake not, cause a great change in the condition and comparative influence of our country towns. And if their influence is thrown into the right scale, it may be an important instrument of saving the country from ruin.

It is time that I should make my readers better acquainted with the place which was so fortunate as to number our Christian Citizen amongst its principal inhabitants.

Churchover is a small country town, pleasantly situated on the banks of a small river in one of the northern counties of England. When first I knew it, it ranked as one of the most respectable and agreeable places of residence in the kingdom. It was an excellent specimen of a good old English provincial town. There was an old town-hall and an old grammar-school, an old pair of stocks and an old hospital, and an old bridge, besides the old Gothic church with its venerable spire, which stood on an eminence overtopping all the rest. In addition to these old buildings, which gave a peculiar character to the place, there were a good many handsome new houses in the town of Churchover, for it was far from being in a state of decay. Many wealthy and intelligent families chose it for their residence; and many thriving and respectable tradespeople, whose fore