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of the neighbourhood have been often heard to remark, that any menaces from the object of their study, are still earliest indicated by the gloom that gathers around Mary Gray; while in the darkest

hours of the showery season, of spring or autumn, if any spot around would seem to indicate a brighter prospect, it is ever the green and sunny summit of Bessy Bell.

TITHES.

This being a day of which our poor stupid forefathers never dreamed, a day in which the world teems with miraculous improvements, projected for church and state, let us draw out of the bustle for a moment and ponder upon one of the excellent changes in agitation. Which shall we select? Corn laws-repeal of the union-abolition of slavery-abolition of tithes? Let it be the last; for the individuals primarily concerned are not a class likely to turn on us if we wrong them. And the practice of the age being to attack the weakest, in the name of fashion, have at them! Tithes! why the very word should be as abominable to us as pork to a Jew. The wretched Israelites were always odious to honest men; tithes are a bantling of their by-gone policy, and therefore righteously to be abhorred with the parent. In this conclusion we are sure of having with us every rational dissenter. What shrewd fellows the dissenters! How clearly they detected even the rags of old mother popery dangling from the skirts of our tithe-owning establishment! How wisely they condemned the doating institutions of corrupting the pure gospel of Christianity, founding her continuance and support on Jewish taxation. Yet these same obstinate, untractable parsons, half-priests, half-Jews have the hardihood to deny that they assert a right to tithes on any appeal to Jewish law! Stupid fools, not to take as their defence the line of reasoning thrust upon them by the wise dissenters, who should of course understand their interests and affairs better than themselves. No; the Ministers of our establishment disclaim all connection with Judaism, maintain that they conceive and believe every Jewish law and Ceremony superseded for the present by Christianity, and that their right to tithes rest solely on the deed of the nation at large. What dolts! The nation bestow such an enormous revenue on a body that will neither fight

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nor agitate, nor crouch submissively like sycophants, to the will of every variable and varying administration! The nation could never have done this! They say it has done so, and appeal to the testimony of centuries which have elapsed since the first deed of gift confirmatory of the same. To speak in sober earnest, this is the fact. friend of tithes, conversant with the truth of Christianity in all its bearings, could for an instant be cheated into the belief of such double-refined nonsense, as that tithes are held by our clergy "Jure Divino." All that can be said from Scripture on the subject is, that we have there an example of national support rendered to the ministers of a right religion. Our kingdom followed that example, and did well, except it be considered stupid policy to imitate what was so sanctioned by a higher authority than that of man. A national gift conferred tithes on the officers of our church for their support, and to tithes they have as much right and title as Marlborough had and Wellington has to the estates confirmed to them and to their heirs for ever. In truth, it is almost waste of words and time to argue about a right which is more palpable than that by which three fourths of the estates in Britain are at present held the question is merely between might and right. Has the nation a right to abolish tithes and retract the gift once made to our ecclesiastics? No more than it has to strip the heirs of Marlborough of Blenheim, or deprive the Duke of Wellington of the Strathfieldsay estates bestowed on him in token of his country's gratitude. Has the nation might to dispossess our clergy of their incomes? Yes, might there is, and whenever exerted, the ministers of our church, at the public will-worked up into the form of law-may be flung out to shift and struggle for a maintenance, with the talents and education at which, thank God, no legalised mob can reach. However, as there seems

to be a longing abroad for the exertion of this might, and abolition of tithes, but some little doubt and hesitation as to the easiest and surest method of proceeding, we will quote a case in point for the instruction of all anxious to do the business effectively and quickly.

"And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel hard by the palace of Ahab, King of Samaria. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, give me thy vineyard that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard; or if it seem good to thee I will give thee the worth of it in money.

And Naboth said to Ahab, the Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. And Ahab came to his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no bread? And he said unto her, because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, give me thy vineyard for money, or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it; and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard! And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise and eat bread and let thine heart be merry, I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and

to the nobles that were in his city dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letters saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people And set two sons of Belial before him, to bear witness against him saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king and then carry him out and stone him, that he may die. And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the let ters which she had sent unto them. They proclaimed a fast, and set Na

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both on high among the people. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones, that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead. And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to give thee for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead. And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it."

Here we have an evil-eyed faction in the person of Ahab, coveting the lawful possession of an humble party under the figure of Naboth, and finally successful through the counsel of such a minister as Jezebel, in grasping the possessions and abolishing Naboth's title and Naboth together. A ready mode of doing business this, well worthy of those who now desire the abolition of tithes. Stone the clergy and the work is done!! Having helped our friends with such useful counsel, we may now say a word on the original purpose or object of tithes. This we may call the cui bono. But here we cannot put forward as much as we are able and willing, because our arguments may not be suitably esteemed. If the world would grant us an affirmative reply to one question, we might run on smoothly enough. The ques tion is this, Have the people souls ? If they have, the propriety of tithes, or, in other words, the advantage of regular public teachers, educated and trained in the principles of saving truth, must be at once allowed! What dull inconsistency do those men exhibit, who boast their desires and efforts to serve their fellow creatures, who consult and labour for the benefit and comfort of the mere body, while they pass without the slightest notice, the soul and its eternal interests! Such men either have no souls, and consequently feel nothing for those of others; or, if they have, stifle sympathy and conscience, to work, untroubled, for the

praise whieh an evil world often lavishes upon her favourite minions! Once on a time, however, the rulers of our nation thought much for souls as well as bodies, and formed that ecclesiastical arrange ment which yet continues, with all its faults and imperfections, the greatest blessing in our empire. They provided a respectable and intelligent succession of pious men, to act as teachers to the people; and further, endowing such with a sufficient support, which should obviate the necessity of personal labour for subsistence, qualified them to devote their whole strength and time to the important callings of religion.

The two great evils which first required the labours of the Protestant clergy, were popery and profligacy. The superstitions and idolatries of the former threatened men with the wrath of Him who has cursed idolatry for ever; while in combination with the latter, they kept the subjects and members of the Empire in such a state of moral and physical degradation, as to exclude the very possibility of any national prosperity or exaltation. Against these evils our clergy waged a successful warfare; delivered, (as it is this day,) at least thirteen millions of our people from the fangs of Popish idolatry, and spread abroad a degree of pure morality and political power unequalled in any infidel or Popish empire! However this was not all. Possessed of God's written testimonies, they made, and still make known the only way of salvation for lost sinners, that by faith in Christ, for which many of them died as witnesses, and in which many, through their means, did rejoice and do rejoice. What we have said may not go down with all men ; yet for the sake of those who would appear to have no souls, or having souls, barter them for carnal advantage, we may add one word. Can there be a doubt as to the inquiry whether it be easier to rule and legislate for a moral intelligent community or a swinish ignorant rabble? None! Then wellappointed public masters of morality must be of essential benefit and assistance to a Government, provided always it be a well ordered one, for facilitating the exercise of law, affording time, by public tranquillity, for the consideration and arrangement of intricate affairs, foreign or domestic, ensuring the enjoy ment and use of peace, and giving out, when called for, a healthy, orderly, and

steady people, to fill our ranks, or man our fleets in honorable war. This may be accounted arguing for the influence of Christianity in general, rather than for the particular form of support yielded to a Christian Ministry. The influence, however, of moralizing Christianity, has more to do with tithes than might be hastily imagined; so that really assent to the value of the former, compels approbation of the latter. Abolish tithes wholly, and let the ministers of religion derive support from their congregations or individual labours. In either case it must come to pass, that the general tone of public morals will go down. If a congregation be of sufficient wealth to afford the minister an adequate provision, we shall find him in a public light possessed of no respect or power, while the very consciousness of this, combined with a sense of obligation to a stated round of simple congregational exertions, must render him reluctant, if not unable, to attempt any thing for general morality. The clergy of our establishment are in a certain measure recognised as officers of government, are put forward and supported by the authority of government, and, in such an attitude, do possess public respect and influence. This may be termed a factitions influence, not springing directly from religion. It may be so; yet it will stand good, while men are prone to yield a certain reverence to the annunciations and symbols of authority; and when they accompany truth, no honest man can murmur. Possessed of such accompaniments, the established clergy hold weight, not only with individuals attendant on their ministry, but with men of different persuasions, and so long as the extension of religion and morality constitutes their work, the progress of both will bear proportion to their influence. All this perishes, the moment our clergy are reduced to the condition of merely private ministers of congregations! At present the proceeds of tithes maintain every ordained officer of the church. Such a literal independence precludes every necessity on the part of our ministers, as we have said, either to toil for support, or bow with sycophant readiness to the taste of their congregations, should that become morally depraved. Our preachers are, in the true sense of the word, "Independents;" and having had their principles duly formed by their unshack

led condition, give the best warrant for their proving to be among the people, the steadiest friends of an upright aud religious government. In connection we throw in a warning to the enemies of tithes who cannot perceive any relation between them and public morals. There does exist between the Protestants of Great Britain and their clergy a deep attachment. The day of clerical indolence has long passed away; few inactive, useless men remain in the lower ranks of our establishment; the general benevolence, gentle conduct, and unaffected piety of our working members and officers, have had their effect in winning the affections of Protestants of every denomination. We repeat it, a deep attachment exists between the Clergy and Protestants of Great Britain, Will they-the great majority of her population-tamely sit still, and see a few wrong-headed or false-hearted slaves of power deprive the clergy of their long held, long confessed rights? Will they tamely suffer robbery to pass into a law, and by cold indifference, become a party in casting out their patrons, the men they love, to struggle with poverty or rest with beggary? Never! Let not the friends of honesty, the friends of our church, tremble at the apprehension of her downfall. Let them, the power and strength of the nation, who possess ability to protect her and her ministers, let them use that ability, and despise the bullying threats and abortive efforts of the few and the malignant to level our mighty edifice with a single blow!!! Our last consideration now opens. May not tithes, in their present obnoxious form, be discontinued? And here a danger certainly exists. The enemies of the church call themselves enemies of tithes merelyy-avow an affection for her orders and spiritual institutes, but express a wondrous abhorrence to the mode of maintenance afforded our ministers to tithes. This they do with an amazing profession of solicitude for the best interests of religion. Tithes, they say, are a tax on industry, an intolerable oppression on the poor farming community, excite the hatred of the labouring classes, and procure for them, against the parsons, the best sympathies of the affluent! Tithes certainly, and but very lately varied in proportion to produce; in proportion to labour expended in cul

tiavtion. So that the man who paid a shilling tithe for one year, if he ventured to increase his exertions might have to pay ten shillings tithe on the ensuing. There lay the tax on industry. What absurdity! As if the owner of £10 would find it less difficult to pay £1, than the owner of £100 would to pay £10. However this fool's objection has vanished. Tithes, as such, exist no longer. The income of the clergy (by the late act enforcing composition) now arises from a charge on land and not on produce—an unvarying charge, and on this great improvement we heartily congratulate both clergy and people. Still it is insinuated this charge falls on the poor-the miserable tenantry, men of the spade and shovel. More blundering falsehood! Whenever land was formerly tithe free, the rent demanded, and paid, was always equivalent to the rent and tithe of adjoining lands, subject to tithe. Hence, were composition taken of all lands tomorrow, rents would rise to the present amount of tithe and composition together.

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In this case who would benefit? The landlord, not the tenant, and consequently, in the present state of things if compounded tithe be a tax on any, it is on landed proprietors alone. The simple fact is this, land rates at a certain value, of this one part is the property of the church; annihilate that property and you benefit not the miserable tenant but the affluent proprietor of the remaining nine. After all, these things have been repeated 10,000 times, and still the cry continues-“ Away with tithes in every form;" "the detestation of them is as lasting as the love of justice," &c. Pay the clergy from the treasury.”—The clergy have now a substantial interest in the empire; if that be removed and their incomes made to depend on the will of every successive adminstration, they would not rate at one week's purchase! Let any national emergency arise-any inadequacy on the part of the minister, who of course presides over the treasury, to balance between revenue and expenditure, the mere scratch of his pen, on any pretext over the charges for the church, would clear his difficulties away, but send our clergy to struggle for subsistence in necessary neglect of every public moral and spiritual service. We are aware that against this danger there exists a defence in the provision of the late act

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and heart, waging war against the wisdom and the labours of our ancestors; men whose sole object and ambition are to subvert that which bears the sanction of time, and level to the ground all orders in society, that they may trample on our ruins and rise by our destruction. When the possessions of the church have fallen, no other pro

have tasted the sweets of plunder.

on tithe composition, which appoints to the landlord collecting composition from the tenantry and paying it in bulk to the parochial minister, a certain percentage, equivalent to his individual exemption from the general charge which lies upon the land. Hence landlords will feel it their advantage to maintain the present arrangement in preference to its being changed, for a treasury pay-perty whatever can escape the men who ment to the clergy-a payment to be defrayed by a national tax, from which they could hope no exemption. But we cannot trust to such a defence alone. We feel bound to call on every lover of morality and religion to stand up against further encroachments on the rightful property of the church. We call on them by the regard they bear to men from whose lips they have received the consolations of divine truth, their anxiety to promote and enjoy the benefits of public morality, as well as the propagation of saving knowledge, to show themselves now, a firm phalanx, in resisting every inroad on the revenues of our establishment, and make a bold and strenuous effort, to beat down-to silence the present wild outery of faction, corruption, and revolution. We call on the men of property to look abroad, aye and at home too, on the fearful workings of a spirit fast spreading amongst the nations-a spirit raging in the very dregs of the people, whether they appear as the deluded rabble, or the men of perverted intellect

Against the unequal distribution of church property-against the enormous revenues of bishops, and the comparative poverty of curates-against the fearful practice of thrusting into preferment men without piety, or talent, or experience, because, forsooth, they may be sons or relatives of favourites in place and power, much may with justice be advanced. But such objections have nothing to do with that reform in the church which is loudly called for, -a reform in discipline and patronage -a reform to be dreaded as the ruin of the whole establishment, if introduced by enemies-a reform desired and only beneficial when urged on and fostered by our tried and faithful friends. To such a reform we may hereafter allude, but before closing would utter one observation to those who are most forward in advancing the objections just noticed. The men who have done the work of fiends in violence or sedition, ought not to be foremost to denounce as infamous the poor subject of their villainy.

REMINISCENCES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE.

MY DEAR ANTHONY, On my return this morning from the country, I found in my letterbox a note in your hand-writing, inclosing the prospectus of a new Magazine, and which you blushingly avowed, (so far as one can blush upon paper,) was to be conducted under your own gracious auspices. The name which this your first literary Missey is about to adopt, would intimate a relation between it and that good old Alma Mater at whose feet you and I have sat so long. On the propriety of your engaging in such a speculation at all, the extensive preparations already made for

carrying it into effect, would preclude me from offering an opinion, even were it not inconsistent with a rule I have gradually been induced to adopt, whereby a restraint has been put on that philanthropic propensity so common in the world, of lecturing and advising all one's acquaintances round. This obliges me, at the same time, to mention my perfect state of preparation for others exerting a similar species of ill-natured self-denial towards myself, as thus a full measure of equal justice shall be secured, and a beautiful moral symmetry, as it were, maintained in the case of an individual who is determined in future

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