the age, we are much mistaken if pains and penalties would not soon be found for the resolute assertors of Church principle. The persons at least, who represent the party which in that case would be uppermost, seem resolved to tolerate every thing but intolerance, and to pronounce the Church, intolerance.

We shall be called sad alarmists: but it is as well, we think, to realize a little the tendencies of things and we are far indeed from holding out either of the abovementioned miserable consummations as inevitable. One of the Church's best human hopes, under that merciful Providence which has hitherto been so gracious to her in England, lies in the assurance that a chosen band will not be wanting of such persons as the author of the work before us, to assert those principles, which all in their station are so strongly tempted to disown: even as it would be one among her consolations, should this evil age prevail, to know that they were still on her side, realizing, but in a diviner sense, the noble saying of old, Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, familiares, sed omnes omnium caritates PATRIA una complexa est; that is to say," the Jerusalem from above, which is" and ought to be "free, the Mother of us all."

ART. V. — 1. Letters from Lord John Russell to the Lords Lieutenants, and to the Magistrates in Sessions, and to Mayors in Boroughs, in certain Counties. 1839.

2. Return to an Address of the Hon. the House of Commons, dated 20th August 1839; for a Return of all Associations formed and armed for the Protection of Life and Property, under the Authority of Letters from Lord John Russell to Lords Lieutenant of Counties and to Magistrates, dated the 7th day of May, 1839.

THE subject of Armed Associations for the protection of life and property may seem, at first sight, rather out of our usual range, but we cannot help recording our objections to a project so contrary to the customs and the character of our country. We feel strongly prepossessed as Englishmen and as Churchmen, and whatever else we delight to be called, against this un-English and un-Churchlike innovation; and as long as we read in the page of Scripture so many recommendations of a peaceful and forbearing manner of meeting injuries, whether threatened or done, we shall not think ourselves travelling beyond our record, when we are deprecating any free, hasty, or irregular use of the weapons of carnal warfare

First, a few words on that state of things which is imagined by the Home Secretary to justify inviting one part of our town population to arm themselves against the other, leaving the occasion, the number and choice of persons so armed, and other such important questions, to the discretion or indiscretion, as may be, of his worshipful the mayor for the time being. That state of affairs is nothing new. Take any manufacturing town, and balí a dozen sentences will describe a cycle of changes, in which its history will evolve ad infinitum. One of its phases is as follows. There is a time when every thing is abundant, excepting the supply of labour; for hands are wanted, and the heart of the wealthy man expands with unusual delight at the sight of a mul titude. Manufactories are building on all sides, and chimneys are every week outtopping one another. New streets shoot out and radiate and cross one another over the suburban gardens and meadows quick as ice crystals form on the surface of a pool in a calm frosty night. Houses cannot be built fast enough, and are engaged before the turf is moved; nay, the turf is not always moved. But though hundreds are flocking in from the country to exchange the plough for the loom, still the cry is, "Hands are wanted." Capitalists then know not what to do with their money, and they who are not capitalists are able to procure money for any project they please. China and the Indies and a hundred American republics are calling for our wares. But want of hands still clogs the career of speculation. The operatives know their advantage. They are then the masters. They can get almost whatever wages they have the modesty to ask. And as, like their employers, they think the present state of things must last for ever, they spend their money as freely as they earn it. They cover their brick floors with carpets, and give their daughters silk frocks and parasols. This is what is called prosperity. The modern philanthropist then walks abroad, and surveys with benignant joy the realization of his fondest hopes. But to the Christian this fair scene is not without alloy. Every form of vice and error then breaks out with tenfold energy; and that numerous class which knows no discipline but need, then rushes headlong to indulgence and to sin. All however may soon perceive that this is a fever, and no healthy state. For a time thy cheek is flushed, the pulse is quick, the veins are full, and evere pore is open; but by-and-bye succeed the aching limb and stiffened joint, the flagging circulation, and the chill contracted skin. Before long every day brings tidings that the whole world is surfeited with our commodities, which are rotting in the warehouses of a thousand distant ports; that nations are bankrupt, and our most prized manufactures are hawked about in foreign cities for

a quarter of the sum they cost at home in wages only. A panic ensues the visionary fabric of commercial credit, adorned with innumerable golden schemes, falls to the ground. New built manufactories are deserted. Scarcely finished machinery, with every point and edge and corner sharp, and every surface bright, is sold for a mere per centage of its contract price. The operative is thrown out of work, or kept on at wages lowered down to the. starvation point: for there are always some masters who are wealthy and provident enough to be able to defy the times, and continue their mills going though at a loss, or only a distant prospect of return. At such a time a strike would be, as a leading chartist said the other day, speaking of the projected "sacred month," a real "godsend" to the masters; if at least the operatives could only be induced to confine themselves to meetings, processions, and political agitation. The master then becomes really master. Then the wretched thriftless class of men above described starve, but of course are not content to starve. They rebel against an order of things which does not provide uninterrupted security to the improvident. Debarred from sensual excess they become machine breakers, reformers, or chartists.

Such are the two extremes between which our manufacturing towns are always oscillating; though there are many disturbing forces and counteracting media, that make the extremes themselves comparatively unfrequent, and also give an individual character to the manufacturing annals of each year. Mercantile

depressions are often only local, or only in certain branches of trade, whence the distress consequent on them more admits of alleviation, can be traced to a palpable origin, and affords less handle to political misrepresentation. Again, the variations in demand are commonly not so great but that masters and men may differ in their opinions of them, and consequently enter on long and painful struggles on the question of wages, to the great loss of both parties. At one time therefore we find one of these parties in a condition to dictate terms, at another time another; but generally they are more evenly matched. As no party can attain its object against a powerful antagonist without union, so in the instance before us, there is a combination formed on both sides, neither of which perhaps is entirely clear of occasional unfairness.

The mill owners are of course, from their position in society, the first to hear the rising murmur of popular discontent; for they are the great paymasters. It falls to them to make the unwelcome announcements that the mill must be stopped, or half the hands dismissed, or the wages of all reduced, or, what comes to the same thing, not raised, in spite of a general rise