counteracting powers furnish matter for experiment and calculation; they form part of the design originally impressed upon the universe, and are but developements of the general laws by which the system is governed and directed. In morals, the case is different: causes and effects are not so simple nor so easily evolved; results do not admit of being so accurately traced to their immediate origin; though the laws may be general, the complex character of the agents renders the inquiry uncertain, and the whole system would seem, to our apprehension, rather the working of a superintending Providence, providing resources as exigencies arise, than the original plan of the great Designer, calling into being equally the exigence and the compensation. The irregularities and disturbances of the universe, which to the uninstructed would seem to demand these compensations, must, with their attendant train of what we call physical evils, have been in the original draught of creation, but we are irresistibly compelled to deny that such was the case with moral evil; alien from the infinitely pure essence of the Supreme, it can be but permissively related to his will; its very introduction into his creation, would seem to be the work of some other being; and while the feeble powers of man stagger under the conception of an infinite intelligence, contemplating in each moment of a boundless eternity, all the vicissitudes of the moral creation, they seek refuge in tracing the benevolent hand of mercy operating in time, the remedy for evils as they arise.* Hence, then, the moralist, while he admires the compensating goodness of Providence, may struggle to render it unnecessary; and though evil may possess its detergent qualities, or be even transmuted into an agent of utility, he may use his humble, and honest, and benevolent exertions to diminish that very evil.

We would apply these principles to the subject of religion, considered in its influence on society. That much good is produced on that society by the free discussion of opinion, and the free toleration of dissent, we are so far from denying, that we regard both as the unalienable rights of our species, as the best safeguards of our religion and our liberties. We can perceive, and gladly acknowledge, the advantages of a diversity of opinion on the subject of religion; and as we have had occasion to develope, in a former number, some of the principles of our nature, essentially connected with the existence of that diversity, so are we inclined, Churchmen though we be, to go a great way with a talented contemporary,† in estimating the good both to society and the Establishment resulting from its prevalence. We fear the effect of

* That such is the mode of acting in the moral world, we are far from intimat ing. The being who governs it is a "God that hideth himself." It is only intended to point out a remarkable difference in the mode in which his interference may be traced in the works of nature and the government of society.

↑ A writer on the "Church and Dissenters," in Blackwood's Magazine for Oct.

a monopoly upon human nature, and we know the advantage of a stimulant; the jealousy of rival teachers, and the fear of rival sects, may preserve attention to duty, where higher motives do not exist, and may co-operate with them where they do; while a strong fence is raised against ecclesiastical tyranny, and a strong protection for the purity of religion, by the watchful superintendance of the sectary, and his active interference with the people. For much of the liberty we enjoy, and much of the zeal which animates the Church, we are indebted to the struggles of contending parties; and our gratitude to Providence for these blessings, is not to be allayed by the remembrance of the faction which sullied the one, or the fanaticism which accompanied the other. Believing that very many classes of our dissenting brethren hold the essentials of Christianity, and not disposed to overvalue the differences between us; we rejoice to see general charity growing out of partial feuds, and while, as Churchmen, we would wish all men to be even as ourselves, we yet, as philosophers, can trace much good derived from religious diversities, and, as Christians, can tolerate that opposition which moderate, and sincere, and pious men maintain. Yet this is but an example of the system of compensation. Dissent and diversity of opinion are still evils, and our gratitude in seeing that they are made by Providence the parents of so much good, is certainly not diminished by our serious conviction that they are evils. The indirect benefits which they produce, should not induce us to close our eyes to the disadvantages essential to their existence, so neither should our justifiable attachment to the system loved by our feelings, and approved by our reason, tempt us to deny the practical advantages which result from aberrations, perhaps, essential to the very well being of that system, and certainly connected with the free exercise of human reason.

With such sentiments we would look at England, and in our unmingled admiration of her moral, her religious, her political superiority, scarcely feel an emotion of regret for the prosperity and extent of the dissenting interest. With such sentiments would we have looked at Ireland a few years since; and in the apparent inertness of the Establishment, we would have rejoiced to discover some elements in the religious world, that might generate a salutary ferment. But circumstances have recently changed; Popery, roused from its torpor, has commenced the struggle with the weight of collective, and the earnestness of individual interest: the contest is not as heretofore, between two domestic parties, whose ultimate interests coincide, or as in England, between a number of counteracting sec's, and an Establishment respectable for its numbers, and pre-eminent for its learning aud influence; it is no longer Protestant against Protestant-agreeing in their common charter and respecting their common principles--but Protestant against Roman Catholic; with opposing standards of faith, and opposing criterions of practice, with the fervour of religious zeal, and the warmth of political rivalry. Protestants

have to deal with enemies formidable from their apparent union -powerful from the imputed weight of numbers-stimulated by successful aggression, and immovable in the inertia of ignorance. Under such circumstances we must think that a different sort of conduct and bearing among Protestants would commend itself to a sound discretion; and among all the plans or resources that might be suggested by those who are influential, or practical, we do not hesitate to say, that an union of Protestants-not a doctrinal merely, but a formal ecclesiastical union, as it appears to us to be a feasible, so we are satisfied it would be a most effectual expedient.

We feel the delicacy of the subject on which we have touched; we know its real, and still more, its imaginary difficulties; we are aware that the pride of one party, the suspicions of another, and the prejudices of all, are likely to take up arms against such a proposition; and although the ground is not absolutely untrodden, it has been so little examined of late, that we confess to the hesitation with which we venture to trace it but we do so, because we deem the subject to be of infinite importance, and because holding not only the importance, but the feasibility of the measure, we would think ourselves guilty of a serious offence, if we did not communicate with frankness, the opinions which we have embraced with sincerity. Even though it could be proved that our sentiments were unfounded, and that Protestants, like some mathematical quantities, might approach each other indefinitely, without uniting, we would still not regret our speculation. Though a vision, it is still so cheering and consolatory, that we would not reason ourselves out of its reality, nor regret that we had dwelt on the possibilities of uniting those in the bonds of comprehensive amity, who labour for one common good, and look forward to one common reward.

We are well aware of the circumstances which must ever encumber such a proposition in England, but we conceive that they are not influential here. In England the Dissenting Interest seceded from the Establishment, and has not lost the hostile attitude which such a partition was calculated to produce. In Ireland, the Presbyterians, to whom we would wish our observations to be principally limited, never formed a part of the National Church ;* they belonged to another, an independent Establishment, one that resembled that Church in its most obnoxious features, in its national character, and its connection with the State. The

* "The establishment of Presbyterians in the North of Ireland was of a peculiar kind. They were no more dissenters from the Established Church, than the members of that Church were dissenters from them. They made no rent, or breach in the Church of which they were never members, except by a comprehension which should be ever desirable to liberal minds. They were a part cut out from the Church of Scotland, and planted in Ireland, where they have been of signal service to the Protestant Establishment and even to the Episcopal Church itself."-Campbell's Vindication, p. 66.

bickerings and jealousies then that are so necessarily consequent upon the secession of a scrupulous, or a discontented portion of an establishment, and which must ever prevent or impede a return of the English dissenters, had no existence here; there are here no injuries to be forgiven, no rivalries to be pardoned, no ancient quarrels to be forgotten. The old causes of secession which ever and anon start up before us in unreal magnitude in English controversy are here unknown; one side has no persecution to pardon, and the other no faction to forget. If the parties treat, they do it on independent grounds ;-if they unite, it would be as two co-ordinate authorities, for a common advantage. The difficulties then that lie in the way of an union of the English dissenters with the Establishment, are of little force in Ireland, where the word Dissent is divested equally of its opprobrium and its charm, or rather is altogether misapplied, when it is used to denominate the Ulster Presbyterians.

*

Let it be remembered, that an event such as we contemplate, would be but a recurrence to a former state of things. When the wisdom of James I. devised the plantation of Ulster by colonies from Scotland, it is well known that the Ministers of the Settlers were admitted to the rights, and possessed the tythes of the parochial Clergy. They belonged to a Church which had received from its founder a species of Bishops, under the synonymous title of Superintendants,+ although this system was subsequently levelled by the democratic zeal of Melville, and they found in the Irish Prelates and Clergy, persons willing to yield to Christian fellowship, whatever would not injure Christian principles. Their Ministers received ordination from the Irish Bishops, whom they acknowledged as chief Presbyters, and conformed to the authorised ordination service, with the omission of some offensive passages. They were regularly inducted into the livings, were co-operated with by their Episcopal brethren, and sat in the convocations; and whatever other merit Ussher's system of Episcopacy may have wanted, it certainly possessed the no small advantage for Ireland, that of comprehending many of those valuable, but scrupulous individuals, who would have retired with conscientious terrors from one less relaxed. To this amity between the Church and Presbyterians, the passing of Ussher's Articles still further contributed, as those which touched on disci

• That conformity had not been very strictly enforced previously may be conjectured from the fact, that the second Provost of Trinity College was the celebrated Walter Travers, of well known puritanical opinions, and whose ordination it is believed had been Presbyterian, and the two first Fellows elected after a public examination, Fullarton and Hamilton, were Presbyterians. The latter, afterwards Lord Clandeboy, was Ussher's Editor.

+ Spottswood's Church and State of Scotland, p. 156, 174, 258, 275.-Cook's Reformation of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 382, 383. The system of Church Government established by Knox, who had not "the horror of Episcopacy which soon after his days was unfortunately introduced into Scotland," (Cooke ii. 380.) had not only superintendants but readers, and recognised a regular liturgy.

pline were marked with a moderation, and those which regarded doctrine with a strictness that suited the peculiar character and circumstances of the Hiberno-Scottish Church.

This state of things, the result partly of circumstances and partly of conviction, continued in Ireland until the meddling and ambitious spirits of Laud and Strafford roused by their interference the sleeping demon of nonconformity, and went near to involve this country in the same confusion which ill-judging zeal had excited in England. The very Bishops who had ordained and inducted the Presbyterians, were compelled to suspend them, and the substitution of the English for the Irish articles, though no loss on the side of moderation, and a most manifest gain on that of Christian prudence, seemed to be a declaration of war from Lambeth. Without passing any opinion on the singular, but comprehensive state in which the Church of Ireland was placed, and with a sincere conviction of the superiority of the English to the Irish articles as a national creed, we yet cannot but regret the untimely enforcement of a discipline for which circumstances had not prepared Ireland, and we do sincerely rejoice that the final deprivation of the Presbyterian Clergy, was the work of the usurper, and was deserved by the loyalty of the sufferers. The refusal to acknowledge the Protector, the uncompromising opposition of the Presbyterians to the Parliamentary Oligarchy, manifested by the "Bangor Declaration," and the refusal to take the "Engagement;" above all their resolute perseverance in praying for the King and his restoration, merited this reward of principle and loyalty, and called for the forbearance of the Church which came in with Charles. At the restoration it was determined to assimilate more closely the Churches of England and Ireland, and therefore the ejected Presbyterian Clergy remained excluded, but as a compensation for the loss of benefices of small and uncertain value, a considerable sum was voted for their support, which was increased after the revolution to £1,200, and amounts at present for Ulster alone to £15,000, admitting of indefinite increase according as congregations multiply.

From such circumstances occurring at a time when separation was more common, and things indifferent looked on as more important than at present, we may hope that at a more enlightened period, and when the importance of union is more perceptible, such recollections would produce the most beneficial effects. On a retrospect we have to remember much of loyalty, much of piety, much of active good; they, much of kindness and of feeling; and the friendship of Ussher may, with them, well soften the recollection of the severities of Laud. We have to thank our Presbyterian brethren for Protestantism preserved in Ireland, and they us for the fostering care of the Prelacy and the grateful remuneration of the State.

If we were to offer inducements to our Presbyterian brethren to join us, we would present them in the state of our Roman Catholic and our Presbyterian countrymen-we would request them to look