that every deliberative assembly must possess a certain power over its members, in order to the due discharge of its functions, which would always be liable to derangement if a refractory individual might not be silenced or expelled; but this power should be exercised on something of fixed principle, and should be regulated by known rules. By absenting them selves, however, from the sittings of the chamber, the opposition deprive the public of the benefit of those constitutional discussions which are always, in the end, if judiciously and temperately conducted, serviceable to the progress of truth and liberty, however incapable they may be at the moment of effecting their immediate object. There is nothing which the ultra party so much dread as inquiry, dis cussion, and the free collision of mind with mind. We see this throughout their whole policy; in education, in religion, and in the affairs of civil government. Even Pestalozzian establishments and independent schools, especially those on the system of mutual instruction, which at one period were making such hopeful progress, have been either discountenanced, or as far as possible drawn within the range of ultra influence. And the government begins to frown even on Protestant Bible Societies. Soon, if affairs proceed as their projectors seem to wish, no author in France will dare to write any thing, no printer to print any thing, no instructor to teach any thing, no individual to whisper any thing, but what the votaries of religious and political bigotry may sanction. And here lies our great fear for that unhappy country; for as we cannot for a moment suppose that "the clock of ages" can be finally put so far back as the ultra party desire, or that the shadows of night will really return on the face of this enlightened nation, we dread the convulsions which may yet ensue, the tremendous struggle, in which may again be agitated--not perhaps without a long period of bloodshed and suffering-all those interests which more than thirty years of fearful confliction have not yet adjusted.

The duc d'Angoulême has set off to join the army, which is stated to consist of 90,000 men. The advanced guard of 30,000 men has been for some time on the frontiers of Spain. May the God of battles, who is also the au

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thor of peace and the lover of concen out avert in his mercy the awful porte preof this afflicting crisis! The decla rations of the British government in both houses of parliament indicate, that scarcely any rational hope now remains of peace being preserved between France and Spain.

SPAIN. Whether Spain is capable at the present moment of resisting the mighty shock which is preparing for her, is a question which cannot be thought of without some considerable apprehension. Neither her finances nor her military establishments would appear equal to the prompt repulse of a powerful invading army, especially when we consider the wide extent of her internal disorders. She has however to calculate, on the other hand, on the civil discontents of France; on the spirit known to pervade the French army, and so strongly demonstrated in the affair of M. Manuel; on the countenance of free governments throughout the world; and, we would hope, in the event of invasion, on the rising enthusiasm of her own popu lation, who are not likely to be effectually conquered unless it becomes their own wish to be so. The conduct of the legislature and government has continued to be spirited and decisive. The extraordinaryCortes, which closed on the 19th February, provided, before their dissolution, for the transfer of the seat of government from Madrid to some other place, in case the capital should be menaced by a foreign army. The king refused to sign this act, and dismissed his ministers who pressed it; but the public agitation became so great that he was obliged to restore them. They afterwards resigned vo luntarily, and new ones were appointed. The ordinary Cortes met on the 1st of March. The speech from the throne, and their reply, were both couched in the strongest language of constitutional patriotism. They place their cause on the broad basis of international justice, declaring most urgently that the fundamental laws of Spain can be dictated only by herself, and that they will resist to the utmost extremity all hostile interference. The regular Cortes quite concur with the extraordinary Cortes in the propriety of removing the king, court, and legislature, should the metropolis be threatened. Seville is spoken of as the most likely place of retreat. The Constitutionalists are stated to

have nearly exterminated the " army of the faith," the allies, if not the stipendiaries, of France.

PORTUGAL. An attempt has been made in the province of Tras os Montes to produce a counter-revolution. The condé de Amarante has raised the standard of rebellion at Villa Real, and is stated to have under his com mand a hardy and desperate band of peasantry. The Cortes thought it necessary, upon the receipt of this intelligence, instantly to pass an act somewhat similar to the suspension of the habeas corpus act in this country. It is to be feared that those who.organized or fomented the disturbances in Spain may have found their way to Portugal also; where, however, there is, if possible, still less shadow of reason for interference than in Spain, as the Constitution was effected with the most prompt acquiescence of all the public authorities, the King himself being among the foremost in sanctioning the measure.

CHINA. A dreadful conflagration broke out in Canton on the 1st of last November, and continued till the morning of the 3d. The number of houses destroyed is estimated, according to the English account, at 13,700: the Chinese make it 16,000. Five hundred Chinese are calculated to have perished. The East-India Company have lost property, it is said, to a large amount. Their treasure was saved. Forty thousand Chinese are said to be deprived of their habitations; and some years must elapse before Canton can recover its former condition.

DOMESTIC.

We have already alluded to the declarations of ministers as to the improbability of peace being preserved between France and Spain. They have engaged to lay before Parliament, soon after the Easter recess, the correspondence between this country and the continental powers on the subject. They appear wisely to have endeavoured to prevent this country from being rashly committed as a party in hostilities.

The important subject of Irish tithes has been brought under parliamentary discussion. Mr. Hume proposed the appointment of a committee to carry into effect several resolutions; stating, that the property of the bishops, deans, and chapters in Ireland is public pro

perty, under the controul of Parliament, either for the support of religion, or for any other beneficial object, due regard being paid to the rights of every person at present in the enjoyment of such property: that it is expedient to inquire whether the Irish Church establishment is not greater than is necessary, both as regards the number of persons employed, and the amount of their income; and, if so, whether a reduction should not take place, with due regard to all existing claims: and that the best interests of Ireland require a fair commutation of tithes. In the course of his speech, Mr. Hume stated, that his object was gradually to reduce the members of the Irish bench (as the present possessors die off) to one archbishop and four bishops, instead of four archbishops and twenty-two bishops. The whole remaining body of dignitaries he also considered far too large; and as for deans and chapters he thought them wholly useless, and proposed that such appointments should be left unfilled up as they became gradually vacant. He introduced his resolutions with premising, that Ireland contains 6,800,000 souls, of whom 5,820,000 are Roman Catholics; that consequently only 980,800 Protestants (and of these a large part were Dissenters) remained to be benefited by the ministrations of the Established Church; that the revenues dedicated to this service were far too large; that two-elevenths of the whole of the land is the property of the church; that of 14,800,000l., the annual rental of Ireland, not less than 2,500,000l. (equal, he thought, if duly improved, to 3,250,000) belonged to the established clergy; that in the year 1819, out of 1289 beneficed clergymen, 531 were non-resident; and that of the remainder, called residents, a large portion lived many miles from their benefices. He proposed that all the clergy should have an income of from 150l. to 500l. per annum; instead of their present great disparity of remuneration. The honourable member's sweeping propositions, we need not say, were rejected by the house; not less on account of some of the fundamental principles upon which they proceeded, than for the exaggeration which evidently prevailed in his details. On a subsequent evening, Mr. Goulburn brought forward the plan proposed by government for the ame

lioration of the Irish tythe-system. It consists of two parts. The first is a bill to promote a temporary composition of tithes: the second for a permanent commutation. The first proposes that the Lord-lieutenant shall have the power, upon the requisition of an incumbent or of a certain number of the tithe-payers in his parish, to direct the assembling of a special vestry, to be composed of tithe-payers of a certain amount, who shall be authorized to choose a commissioner on behalf the parish, to negociate with a commissioner chosen by the incumbent; the two commissioners, if necessary, choosing an umpire. The commissioners thus voluntarily appointed by both parties (for the measure is not compulsory on either) are to take the average price of corn for the three preceding years, in order to fix a composition, which is to be renewed in the same manner triennially. The manner of levying the composition is to be by the parish assessors, in the same way as the poors' rates. This is to our minds far the most important part of the plan, as it will prevent the present painful collision between the clergyand their parishioners respecting the payment of tithes; the odium resulting from which is most injurious to the repose of the pastor, and to the spiritual interests of his flock. The second bill proposes, that wherever the mutual consent of a clergyman and his parishioners shall be obtained, a perma-, nent contract may be entered into to secure the incumbent an equitable portion of land in lieu of tithes. The national debt commissioners are, if necessary, to advance money to purchase -the land; and are to be paid their interest and principal by means of the tithes, at the valuation fixed in the composition, and which the officers of government are themselves to levy. Objections, and strong ones, may doubtless be made to this or any other measure for the commutation of tithes; but, all the circumstances of Ireland considered, we think the plan calcu-lated to be of great utility. The annunciation of it was most cordially received by all parties in the House of Commons.

We are glad to state, that a bill is to be brought before Parliament to relieve the clergy from the well-meant, but injudicious, obligation of reading the act against profane swearing four times a-year during Divine service;

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and that, from some hints thro wn out by several speakers, it seems rten prebable that the similar enactments cla the marriage act, and other acts, wi be rescinded, and care taken to prevent this interference with the service of God in all future statutes.

Another subject is also before Parliament, and one of a most weighty character, and respecting which the only wonder to every wise and humane mind must be, that the consideration of it has been so long delayed-we mean the state of Slavery in our West India Colonies, with a view to its amelioration and ultimate extinction. That the miseries of the Slave should be nearly what they were, before the narrative of those miseries first thrilled through the ears of a British Parliament; that even since the abolition of the Slave Trade, the human being pronounced by that abolition to have been cruelly and unjustly torn from his home, should remain in the same unmitigated state of bitter captivity to which his brutal captors consigned him; that his unoffending infant after him should be condemned to wear his parent's chain, in interminable bondage; that tens and hundreds of thousands of our fellow-beings and fellowsubjects should be suffered to pass though life, toiling beneath the terrors of the lash, destitute of all that makes life valuable; degraded, so far as man, originally created in the image of God,can be degraded, by ignorance and vice, by stripes and oppression; that in the third decade of the nineteenth century such a state of things should exist within the dominions of this free, and happy, and liberalminded, and Christian country, is indeed an anomaly which cannot be contemplated without extreme surprise, as well as pain. It is not necessary to allude to particular instances of cruelty, in order to shew the incalculable mischiefs of such a state of things; and that not to the slave only, but, in the end, (to the master, and to the country that allows the uncontrouled perpetuation of slavery. Our readers will have perceived, in the excellent paper which we have inserted in another part of our Number,(see Religious Intelligence,p.186.) that the advocates for the mitigation and gradual extinction of slavery rest their cause upon the inherent and inseparable mischiefs which it involves; and not upon the frequent and affect

ing instances (which, however, must not be forgotten) of individual barbarity. We can trace the hand of a beneficent Providence educing good out of evil in the aspect which this great question has begun to assume; for had the extinction of the traffic by all the powers of Europe heen at once completed, and had the interest of the slave-holder so far overcome the ordinary prejudices of a slave colony as to raise his unhappy victim but a very few degrees in the scale of humanity, the great question might have died away and been forgotten, and West India Slavery have continued to deform the creation for centuries to come, or till worn out by its own innate self-destructive properties. But the obstinate retention of the traffic abroad, and the manifest indisposition in our own colonies-effectually to ameliorate the condition of the slave, have forced the whole subject upon the public and parliamentary attention; and greatly are we deceived if the reform and final extinction of this inhuman system may not be calculated upon at no great distance of time. The shape in which the question has been introduced to the British public and the legislature has been peculiarly adapted to secure attention and inquiry. A petition has been presented by the great leader of the protracted parliamentary struggle on the slave-trade, from a body of persons-the Society of Friends-as well known for their disinterestedness and abstinence from political or religious janglings, as for the long tried liberality and firmness with which they have interposed between the slave-trader and the unhappy victim of his cupidity. They also had been the first to petition against the Slave Trade. We have so far exceeded our limits that we regret we cannot give even a brief outline of Mr. Wilberforce's eloquent and convincing address in presenting the petition. He considered that the object which the petitioners wished to ensure was recommended not less by sound policy and the true interests of the colonists themselves, than by justice and humanity to the slave. He was sure, whatever obstacles might be thrown in the way of the cause he advocated, it would and must prevail at last. His health not allowing of his bearing the whole fatigue of this great contestfor a contest we fear it will be-Mr. Buxton has undertaken to bring forCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 255.

ward the subject, and is to submit motion on the 7th of May, for a Committee to consider the state of slavery in the West Indies. The views of the benevolent individuals who have this subject at heart are not novel: Mr. Wilberforce has alluded to several eminent statesmen, who have sanctioned those views; among the rest, Mr. Burke, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and the late Lord Melville. To them he might have added the name of a revered prelate, not then in Parliament-the present Bishop of St. David's-who as long since as the year 1789, published, anonymously, a work which he has since acknowledged, entitled "Considerations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty." We are particularly anxious to urge the subject upon our readers on the second of these grounds; but for the present we must take leave of them and of the question. They will find many very important facts and arguments connected with this and other parts of the subject, in a pamphlet recently published, entitled "Negro Slavery, or a View of some of the more prominent Features of the State of Society, as it exists in the United States and the West Indies." They will be particularly affected by some statements given in that publication, on the testimony of Mr. Cooper, a missionary to the slaves in one of the islands, who was obliged to return home on account of the difficulties thrown in the way of the religious instruction of the slaves by the incessant labours exacted from them. The whole question of free and slave labour, and the impossibility of the latter competing with the former, will be found ably discussed in several recent pamphlets, and among others, in Mr. Hodgson's valuable "Letter to Mr. Say." Parliament will, we hope, enter fully and cordially into the whole question. Our legislators surely will not allow it to be said that they can humanely attend to the comforts of the inferior animals-that they will not suffer a horse to be wantonly injured, or an ox to appear in Smithfield market with marks of unnecessary laceration-without interposing and punishing the offender; but that human beings, their fellowsubjects, may be exposed to the same, or harsher treatment, without commiseration or redress. We will not even venture to imagine such an al2 D