from using arguments, and adopting a tone, which have the appearance of denouncing all members, and much more all clergymen of the Church of England, who should join the Bible Society, as being either weak or false brethren; as being either strangely wanting in common sagacity, or lamentably destitute of regard for our Ecclesiastical Esta blishment. Was it decorous thus publicly to declare-nay, was it consistent with your own knowledge of them to conceive, that these venerable Prelates had not maturely weighed the consequences of the measures to which they were lending the sanction of their respected names? What was there in their former lives, what in their general estimation, which should entitle any person to treat them, whether in effect or in terms is of no great moment, like a set of raw and giddy enthusiasts, who had been hurried by their blind zeal into forming connections the most unseemly, and countenancing measures the most pernicious ;-unseemly too, and pernicious, in respect to those very interests, over which it was their duty to watch with the most jealous vigilance? In justice to them we are bound to believe, that if any thing injurious to the interests of the church were proposed for their approbation, they would start back with almost instinctive sagacity. It cannot be questioned, that they had well counted the cost before they formed that union which appears to you so monstrous. For my own part, I have little doubt of their having done it with their eyes so fully open to all the future consequences of the step they were taking, as even to foresee the probability of an attack from

some over-hasty member, some imprudent friend of the Establishment. I will not, however, venture to affirm that they anticipated a manifesto dated from Lambeth Palace: this circumstance, I am persuaded, was not in their contemplation.

Many indeed, and those too highly important, considerations made it peculiarly necessary for them to ponder well the course they should pursue. But in order to their forming a right judgment on this great cause, it was requisite for them to consider both sides of the question; to estimate the consequences no less of withholding their support from the Society, than those of granting it. Your attention has unfortunately been fixed only upon one side of the subject. In balancing considerations and interests, they would probably, in the first place, cautiously weigh all the possible consequences of uniting themselves with so many different classes of Dissenters, even for the sole and simple purpose of distributing Bibles and Testaments; and in the next, they could scarcely fail to advert to the benefits which must arise from their own influence. They would bear in mind, that, by placing themselves at the head of this Society, which already numbered among its ranks so many clergymen as well as laymen of our church, over whom their influence must naturally be considerable, they might provide against any departure, in future, from the original principles of the institution. Above all, it was evident that their patronage might secure an adherence to that fundamental rule, which, while it should exist, would alone be sufficient to prevent all evil, and to secure all good-viz. that the Society should distribute

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Bibles and Testaments only, the authorised Episcopal Version, and without notes. They might admire the prudence, as well as gallantry, of the general, who, finding, at the beginning of a campaign, a body of troops composed of somewhat heterogeneous materials, and of doubtful attachment, without a leader, willingly placed himself at their head, not only giving, for the present, a right direction to their valour, but securing for his country the benefit of their future services.

When you consider the total number of the Dissenters, of various classes, who belong to the Bible Society, and the amount, not merely of their pecuniary subscriptions, but still more of their zeal, activity, and energy;-when estimating, in short, in our old college way, the velocity as well as the quantity of matter, you sum up the amount of the force ;-wh'en you take into account also, that the whole of this force is brought to operate in a right, direction, and that it is prevented from taking a wrong one ;—when to this you add the probability, that the individuals of whom I speak, honestly obeying the dictates of their several judgments, might have formed new societies, or combined with old ones, hostile alike to the doctrines and the discipline of our Church :-when you duly weigh all these considerations, is it a small service, I would ask, which has been rendered by those respected prelates, who, from the addition of their rank and influence, bringing as it were the key-stone to the arch, cemented a variety of heterogeneous materials into one substance, and thereby consolidated the whole building? By this measure they have secured the attain

ment of abundant good, and have prevented the possible occurrence of serious evil.

It is due likewise to our Prelates to remark, that, firmly believing the peculiar forms of our Establishment to be grounded on the Holy Scriptures, they might reasonably hope that they were conciliating the minds of men to the structure and discipline of our Church, as well as to its principles and doctrines. They knew, that, so far as the influence of the Society should extend, men would at least not be occupied by prejudices against the forms and order of our own Establishment. Might not they also feel that it would be a just reproach to the Church of England, if it should appear, that a Society having been formed in this country for the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, not the name of a single Prelate of the Church of England was to be found on its list? Was the Society composed only of Dissenters from the Estabishment? No; that could not be the explanation, for numbers of her members, both clergy and laity, were among its most zealous supporters. The very respectable Nobleman at the head of it, was known to be attached from principle to the Church of which he was so worthy a member.-Would it not then have been imputed to somewhat of the same lukewarmness, which had drawn from the Roman Catholics the reproach, that the Protestant Church had ever shewn itself to be indifferent to the diffusion of Christianity among Pagan nations?* Might not others, again, have renewed the unjust charge, which was formerly urged against our Prelates, that they were tinctured with * See Muratori on Missions,

the spirit of the Church of Rome, whose example they followed, as far as they were able, in not encouraging the general diffusion of the Scriptures, though they could not directly obstruct it? And are our times those, in which there is so little disposition to speak evil of dignities, so little need of upholding established authorities, as to make it a matter of no account to furnish even slight grounds for such imputations?-From all these considerations, it is plain to me, that, independently of their general anxiety for the circulation of the Scriptures, the Bishops who have joined the Bible Society would be powerfully prompted to do so by their special regard for the interests and credit of our excellent and venerable Establishment.

My remarks have already extended to a great, and I can sincerely declare, by me an unexpected, length. But before I close them, I feel it my duty to enter on a more particular consideration of certain parts of your Letter:-I am afraid I can scarcely say, a brief consideration; but I can at least undertake to promise all the brevity consistent with an adequate exposure of the more prominent among the many errors, in point both of fact and argument, which, I must frankly say, I conceive it to contain.

I am even now at some loss to discover what was the object of that curious lecture which you give us, about funds and expenditure*. In estimating the utility of a charitable institution, what rule of judgment is so obvious as its means? Lord Teignmouth

* Dr. Wordsworth, p. 25.