dark times of the middle ages was the Celibacy of the Clergy, and shrewdly foresaw that their reformed faith and newly-won religious liberty would, on the contrary, only be secure in the hands of a clergy united with the people by every sympathy, national, personal, and domestic.

Gentlemen-this nation has enjoyed for three hundred years the blessing of a Church Establishment which rests upon this basis, and cannot be too grateful for the advantages afforded by the fact that the Christian Ministers not only preach the doctrines of Christianity, but live among their congregations an example for the discharge of every Christian duty, as husbands, fathers, and masters of families, themselves capable of fathoming the whole depth of human feelings, desires, and difficulties.

Whilst we must gratefully acknowledge that they have, as a body, worthily fulfilled this high and difficult task, we must bear in mind that we deny them an equal participation in one of the actuating motives of life-the one which, amongst the "children of this generation," exercises, perhaps of necessity, the strongest influence-I mean the desire for the acquisition and accumulation of the goods of this world.

66

Gentlemen-the appellation of a money

"making parson" is not only a reproach but a condemnation for a clergyman, depriving him at once of all influence over his congregation. Yet this man, who has to shun opportunities for acquiring wealth open to most of us, and who has himself only an often scanty life-income allotted to him for his services, has a wife and children like ourselves; and we wish him to have the same solicitude for their welfare which we feel for our own.

Are we not bound, then, to do what we can to relieve his mind from anxiety, and to preserve his children from destitution, when it shall have pleased the Almighty to remove him from the scene of his labours ?

You have given an answer in the affirmative by your presence here to-day; and although this institution can do materially but little, morally it gives a public recognition of the claims which the sons of the clergy have upon the sympathy and liberality of the community at large, and as such is of the greatest value.

May it continue for further hundreds of years as a band of union between Clergy and Laity, and on each recurring centenary may it find this nation ever advancing in prosperity, civilization, and piety!

DINNER AT THE TRINITY HOUSE.

[JUNE 21ST, 1854.]

HE

THE

1.

"THE QUEEN.”

2.

toast which I have to propose to you is that of

"His Royal Highness the PRINCE OF WALES "and the rest of the ROYAL FAMILY."

In doing so, I am impelled to refer to one Member of that family who is at present engaged in the discharge of arduous duties in the East. He is the only one whom both his position and his age permitted to offer his services on this occasion, and I rejoice at his having done so, as a proof that the Members of the Royal Family are at all times ready to serve-ay! and, if necessary, to bleed for their country.

3.

"The Army and Navy."

The toast which I have now to propose to you "The Army and Navy of Great Britain ". will be drunk by you with peculiar emotions at this time, as your eyes are turned towards these Services, your hearts beat for them, and with their success the welfare and the honour of the country are so intimately bound up.

They will do their duty as they have always done, and may the Almighty bless their efforts!

What is asked to be achieved by them in this instance is a task of inordinate difficulty, not only from the nature and climate of the country in which they are fighting, but also from the peculiarity of the enemy to whom they are opposed, as it may so happen that the Army may meet a foe of ten times its number, whilst the Fleet may find it impossible to meet one at all.

All these difficulties, however, may be considered as compensated by the goodness of our cause, "the vindication of the public law of

Europe," and the fact that we have fighting by our side a Power, the military prowess and vigour of which we have hitherto chiefly known from the severity of long and anxious contests.

If there be a contest between us now, it will be one of emulation, and not of enmity.

"The Army and Navy of Great Britain, and "the Health of the Right Honourable Lord "VISCOUNT HARDINGE, and the Right Honour"able SIR JAMES GRAHAM, Bart."

4.

We are honoured to-day by the presence of the Members of Her Majesty's Government. The only return which the country can make to those men, who sacrifice their own quiet, privacy, and often health, to the arduous and anxious labours of conducting the public business, is an acknowledgment of the sincerity and disinterestedness of their motives of action. This it is which I invite you to give upon the present occasion in drinking the health of Her Majesty's Government, and LORD JOHN RUSSELL, Lord President of the Council.

6.

I am very much obliged to you for the kind. expressions in which you have proposed my