thought (and to me it appears irreconcileable with the Gospel covenant), surely the circumstance of a single sermon being preached before Congress, is insufficient to call for such terms as were used by the Episcopalian. And what is to be said in defence of a Presbyterian clergyman in New York, who published a sermon entitled, "The Pestilence a punishment for public sins," when amongst the causes assigned by him for the city's being visited by yellow fever, we find one to be, that the citizens had elected a Jew to serve the office of sheriff? Just as if God should be more offended with the people during a Jew's shrievalty, than at any other time. A Jew is as competent to have the custody of prisons, as to transact merchandise; and who would think it wrong to employ a Jew to act as agent

or broker?

The affairs of most of the churches are regulated by annual conferences. I attended a sitting of that of the coloured Methodists, being admitted by special favour. The discussions were maintained orderly. Great care was taken in the appointment of deacons to exclude unfit persons. I was also present at the General Assembly of the Presbyterians, the doors of which were wide open. There seemed to be more ora

torical display than evangelical humility. The Moderator made one remark during my presence of very questionable soundness. "It is better,"

said he, "to decide amiss, than not to decide at all." I believe that the Presbyterians pray for divine assistance in the settlement of their affairs. If so, is it not something akin to mockery to decide so hastily as to endanger justice? Yet this remark of the Moderator passed without comment.

Before dismissing the general subject of religion, it is proper to state that in the remote settlements, little or no public worship takes place at stated times. But when an itinerant preacher or a missionary, chances to be at one of them, he generally collects the inhabitants and worship is performed. After a time, some one amongst them, if no regular minister be present, reads prayers and gives out a hymn at a stated place and time, and thus by degrees a congregation is formed, sufficiently large to build a church. It may here be proper to mention that Deism has been so far abandoned by some English Deists who emigrated to Illinois, that they have established weekly worship under the Christian name, from a conviction of its salutary influence on the welfare of their settlement. How forcibly does this demonstrate the excellence of Christianity!

CHAPTER XIII.

THE EPISCOPALIANS.

THE Protestant Episcopal Church in America is a scion of the Church of England. It extends into most parts of the country, and has nine or ten dioceses. As it has in several respects deviated from its mother-church, and as its present state must be interesting to Englishmen, I propose to give a few particulars concerning it.

A Convention of each diocese is held annually, the Bishop presiding as chairman, and having a casting vote; and a general Convention of the whole church is held triennially. The latter consists of two houses, the Bishops forming the upper one, and clerical and lay delegates the lower. Perhaps this assembly would be more appropriately called a Conclave, as all its proceedings are with closed doors. Like the Church of England, this Church is divided into two parties, one giving an Arminian, the other a Calvinistic interpretation to its obscure articles. I apprehend that these parties are much more nearly balanced in America than in England;

though I believe the Arminian party has the ascendancy in the former as well as in the latter. The gradations of rank amongst the American clergy are scarcely perceptible. They have no Archbishop, no Archdeacons, no Deans. The incomes allotted to the Bishops are not so enormous as to place them at an almost immeasurable distance from the inferior Clergy, and they are not exempted from parochial duty; yet I heard no complaints of their want of attention to their episcopal functions. The senior Bishop takes precedence of the others by courtesy, but has no spiritual authority over them.

Sir Richard Steele observes, that the difference between the Churches of Rome and England is, that the Church of Rome is always in the right, and the Church of England never in the wrong.. Certain it is, that since the days of Archbishop Laud, the latter has been as careful as the former to guard against innovation, that word which intimidates so many from the attempt to effect improvements however essential. The Church in America, however, has made various alterations in the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Ceremonies; most, if not all of which are such, as would meet the concurrence of the most enlightened men in the Church of England, if

once introduced. It would have been surprising indeed, if the reformers from Popery had been able at once to free their minds from all the prejudices of education, and establish a church conformable to pristine purity. As well might we expect to find a man who had long been confined in a dark dungeon, capable of bearing the full light of the sun when brought suddenly to view it, without being dazzled and overpowered by the brilliancy. Yet were there some amongst them who would have proceeded further in the work of reformation, could they have persuaded their brethren to act in unison with them. Of this number was Bishop Hooper, one of the first martyrs to the cruel bigotry of Mary, and whose name deserves to be had in everlasting remembrance for his faith, zeal and willingness to suffer. But for the untimely death of Edward VI. it is probable that the wishes of Hooper and his friends would have been in part realized; for that pious prince was favourable to needful changes. But Elizabeth so far from desiring to carry forward the work of improvement, used her influence to thwart it. She had considerable attachment to some of the discarded ceremonies; how then could she wish to place the Protestant Church at a still greater distance from the Catholic? James I. made

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