chapels at the time of the census furnished accommodation for 186,000, and the number of attendants on the morning of census Sunday was 252,983. The Catholic and Apostolic Church, founded by the Rev. Edward Irving, had at the time of the census about 30 congregations, comprising nearly 6,000 communicants, and the number is said to be gradually increasing. Mr. Irving, (who in 1819 assisted Dr. Chalmers, at Glasgow) was the minister of the Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, very eloquent, and very eccentric; and towards the close of 1829 it was asserted that several miraculous gifts of healing and prophecy, and of speaking with strange tongues, were displayed in his congregation. Having been excluded from the Scotch Church, a chapel was erected for him, in 1832, in Newman Street. In the course of a few years other churches were erected in different places. The Apostolic Church was established on the model of the Jewish Taber income of £105,000 in 1851. This body has an institution for the education of preachers, a Mutual Aid, or Annuity Society, and an Educational Fund. An interesting epoch in the history of the denomination was the celebration of the centenary of its existence in 1839, when the contributions for various connexional objects amounted to £216,000. Among these objects was the purchase of the Centenary Hall and Mission House in Bishopsgate Street, London. There are other bodies of Methodists that have branched off from time to time, in consequence of internal differences of opinion, among which are the New Connexion Methodists, who had about 300 chapels, 95 preachers, and 16,000 members at the time of the census. The number of their attendance on census Sunday was 37,000 in the morning, and about the same number in the evening. The Primitive Methodists in 1850 had 1,500 chapels, 3,500 rented rooms, 500 travelling preachers, and 105,000 members, including those at foreign stations. They have a mis-nacle, with twelve apostles, a new order of prophets, &c. sionary society, with an income of £8,000 a year, and various small connexional funds. The Bible Christians, another community of Methodists, have 293 chapels, 61 itinerant ministers, 10,000 members, and an attendance of 15,000 at the morning services in their places of worship. The Wesleyan Methodist Association is of recent origin, arising out of a controversy in 1834 about the establishment of a theological institution for the education of ministers. The number of its itinerant preachers in 1852 was 90; of its members, 19,000; of its chapels, 329; accommodating about 100,000 persons. The attendance on census Sunday morning was 32,000, and in the evening, 40,000. The Calvinistic Methodists now exist under two distinctive appellations, the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, and the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. The former had 109 chapels, accommodating 38,000 persons, with a Sunday morning attendance of 21,000; the latter had 828 chapels, accommodating 212,000 persons, and their attendance on census morning was about 80,000. In 1836 they delivered their testimony to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to most of the bishops, and to many ministers in different denominations. They also resolved to deliver their testimony to the king in person, and "to as many privy councillors as could be found, or would receive it." In 1837 a "catholic testimony" was addressed to the patriarchs, bishops, and sovereigns of Christendom, and was subsequently delivered to Cardinal Acton for the Pope, to Prince Metternich for the Emperor of Austria, and to other bishops and kings throughout Europe. It is stated that from 1846 to 1851 this sect has made considerable progress. Their chapels furnish accommodation for 7,000 persons, and their attendance on the census Sunday was about half that number. Setting aside a few small and insignificant bodies, we find a substantial agreement in doctrine and in sentiment between the various Protestant denominations in England. Varieties of opinion are a necessary consequence of our perfect religious freedom; and, considering the independent and the self-reliant character of the English people, the The Society of Friends, whose history is full of interest substantial agreement resulting from the exercise of private in connection with the cause of religious liberty and judgment in connection with conflicting sectarian interests Christian philanthropy, has not made progress of late is very remarkable. Nor has this virtual union been withyears. In the year 1800 they possessed 413 meeting-out its practical fruits, which are manifested in the cordial houses, and in 1857 they had but 371. They are generally and liberal support of a number of institutions founded on a wealthy body; they make no proselytes, and many of what has been called the "catholic," or undenominational their younger members join other communions. principle. These are the Evangelical Alliance, the British The Unitarians, always a most influential body in pro-and Foreign Bible Society, the London City Mission, portion to their numbers, from the high culture and social position of many of their members, are also generally stationary or retrograding, owing mainly, no doubt, to the difficulties which minds familiar with the Scriptures find in the reception of their peculiar tenets. The Moravians, or United Brethren, are chiefly distinguished as a missionary body, whose operations are mainly supported by other denominations, especially members of the Church of England. The Roman Catholics made considerable progress in England during the last two reigns. In 1829 they had 394 chapels, which in 1840 had increased to 463, and in 1852 they reached 600. They had at the same time 11 colleges, 88 religious houses, and 875 priests. Their the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, the Jews Society, the Town Missionary and Scripture Readers' Society, the Christian Instruction Society, the British Reformation Society, and several others. Different opinions have been formed as to the amount of church accommodation required by the population. Dr. Chalmers thought that sittings for sixty-two and a half per cent. would be required; but Mr. Edward Baines more correctly calculated that fifty per cent. would be ample, after deducting young children, aged persons, the sick, persons in charge of houses, and employed on public conveyances, &c. The infants and young children under ten years of age in 1850 were 4,440,000; the sick and infirm, 1,000,000; persons in charge of houses, 3,000,000; TO 1837.] NUMBER OF ATTENDANTS ON RELIGIOUS WORSHIP. and the persons employed on railways, steamboats, omnibuses, &c., a considerable number, which may be roughly estimated from the fact that those engaged about omnibuses in London on Sunday are not less than 6,000. The deductions from all these classes would amount to 7,500,000; and consequently sittings in religious buildings in England and Wales cannot be required for more than about 10,500,000, or 58 per cent. of the entire community, even if all who could attend were disposed to do so, which is far from being the case. Besides, it must be recollected that there are double, and sometimes treble services in many places of worship; but, unfortunately, the accommodation is not equally distributed it is often abundant where the population is scanty, and deficient where the population is large-deplorably so in large towns. Now, the total number of sittings furnished by all denominations was 10,212,563, which is only 287,437 short of the number estimated to be sufficient. Nearly half that number are set down as free sittings, but a fourth of those are, from various causes, not available to the class for which they were intended. Mr. Mann calculates that the accessible provision made by the Established Church, which is based upon the assumption that it is to instruct the whole nation, is enough for only about 5,250,000 persons, or but 29 per cent. of the inhabitants of England and Wales. To supply all, it would want more than 5,000,000 additional sittings. From a comparative view of the provision furnished by the Church and by Dissenting bodies, it appears that throughout England and Wales, for every 100 sittings provided by the Church of England, Dissenters furnish 93, or very nearly an equal amount. Dissenters most abound in Wales, Monmouthshire, Yorkshire, Cornwall, Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, and Bedfordshire, in all which counties their sittings exceed in number those provided by the Established Church, while in Wales and Monmouthshire they were more than double. In all other counties the Establishment has a preponderance, most conspicuous in Herefordshire, Sussex, and Oxfordshire, where the sittings of the Church are more than double those of the Dissenters. During the last half-century it has increased its provision by 24 per cent., but the population has increased at the same time 101 per cent. It is interesting to ascertain the proportions of the population who actually attend the ministrations of the Established Church and the various Dissenting bodies. The Wesleyan Methodists have 11,007 places of worship, with 2,194,298 sittings; the Independents, 3,244, with 1,067,760 sittings; Baptists, 2,789, with 752,343 sittings. The total number of attendants in all places of worship in England and Wales on the morning, afternoon, and evening of census Sunday, was less than half of what there was accommodation for at the three services together. The Church of England had actually attending its three services more persons than all the other bodies put together-3,773,474, against 3,487,558. But it appears the number of attendances performed by the 3,773,474 persons is actually less than the number performed by the 3,487,558; the former having attended 5,292,551 times, while the latter attended 5,603,515 times. Or if we assume that a service on an 347 average occupies an hour and three quarters, it would seem that 3,773,474 Churchmen devoted 9,261,962 hours to religious worship (or two hours and a half each), while the 3,487,558 Dissenters devoted 9,806,151 hours to a similar duty, or two hours and three quarters each. Taking the whole of the denominations, we find that the average proportion of attendants to sittings varies from 24 to 45 per cent.; the Church of England being 33 per cent., the Independents 38, the Baptists 42, and the Wesleyans 35. Mr. Horace Mann makes some important reflections upon "the alarming numbers of non-attendants. Even in the least unfavourable aspect of the figures just presented," he says, "and assuming, as no doubt is right, that the 5,288,294 absent every Sunday are not the same individuals, it must be apparent that a sadly formidable portion of the English people are habitual neglecters of the public ordinances of religion. Nor is it difficult to indicate to what particular class of the community this portion in the main belongs. The middle classes have augmented rather than diminished that devotional sentiment and strictness of attention to religious services by which for several centuries they have so eminently been distinguished. With the upper classes, too, the subject of religion has obtained of late a marked degree of notice, and a regular church attendance is now ranked amongst the proprieties of life. It is to satisfy the wants of these two classes that the number of religious structures has of late years so increased. But while the labouring myriads of our country have been multiplying with our multiplied material prosperity, it cannot, it is feared, be stated that a corresponding increase has occurred in the attendance of this class in our religious edifices. More especially in cities and large towns, it is observable how absolutely insignificant a portion of congregations is composed of artisans. They fill, perhaps, in youth our national, British, and Sunday-schools, and there receive the elements of a religious education; but no sooner do they mingle in the active world of labour, subjected to the constant action of opposing influences, than they become as utter strangers to religious ordinances as the people of a heathen country. From whatever cause—in them, or in the manner of their treatment by religious bodies-it is sadly certain that this vast, intelligent, and growingly important section of our countrymen is thoroughly estranged from our religious institutions in their present aspect. Probably, indeed, the prevalence of infidelity has been exaggerated, if the word be taken in its popular meaning, as implying some degree of intellectual effort and decision; but no doubt a great extent of negative, inert indifference prevails, the practical effects of which are much the same. There is a sect originated recently adhering to a system called 'Secularism,' the principal tenet being that, as the fact of a future life is, in their view, at all events, susceptible of some degree of doubt, while the fact and the necessities of a present life are matters of direct sensation, it is therefore prudent to attend exclusively to the concerns of that existence which is certain and immediate-not wasting energies required for present duties by a preparation for remote and merely possible contingencies. This is the creed which probably with most exactness indicates the faith which virtually, week, keeping long hours, many in the unwholesome atmosphere of factories and ill-ventilated apartments, and being unable, perhaps, to supply themselves and their families with Sunday dresses out of their scanty and hardearned wages, feel naturally inclined to rest on Sunday mornings, remaining in their own dwellings during the forenoon, and seeking recreation out of doors, or in the public-house, in the afternoon. This would account for much of the non-attendance at public worship, even if the accommodation were inviting, if the mode of conduct preaching were instructive, practical, and powerful—calculated to stimulate the minds and stir the feelings of the working classes, and adapted to their circumstances. But it is needless to say how extensively and how lamentably these conditions are wanting. Thus, it happens that there are many districts where, although the provision in religious buildings would suffice for barely half those who might attend, yet scarcely more than half of even this inadequate provision is appropriated. "Teeming populations often now surround half empty churches, which would probably remain half empty even if the sittings were all free, while myriads of our labouring population are really as ignorant of Christianity as were the heathen Saxons at Augustine's landing." Nor can it be said that these ignorant masses are inaccessible to Christian instruction, if aggressive efforts were made systematically in the spirit of apostolic Christianity, and if our divine religion were made to assume its real philanthropic aspect, and were accompanied in its teachers by the genial and comprehensive sympathies which distinguished its first preachers. though not professedly, is entertained by the masses of our working population-by the skilled and unskilled labourer alike, by hosts of minor shop-keepers and Sunday-traders, and by miserable denizens of courts and crowded alleys. They are unconscious Secularists, engrossed by the demands, the trials, or the pleasures of the passing hour, and ignorant or careless of a future. These are never or but seldom seen in our religious congregations; and the melancholy fact is thus impressed upon our notice that the classes which are most in need of the restraints and consolations of religion are the classes which are most without them."*ing the service were animated and interesting, and if the This attitude of our increasing population towards religion and religious institutions being naturally a subject of much anxiety to all earnest Christians, inquiry was directed to ascertain its causes. The first of these that suggested itself is the social distinctions that obtrude themselves in places of worship-the pew system, with its exclusiveness, its rights of property in the house of God, its graduated scale of rents marking the worldly position of the occupants, and the contrast presented by the rich dress of the higher classes. All these circumstances, it is alleged, make the working classes feel their inferiority. This is indicated also by the location of free seats, which are generally in the worst places for seeing or hearing, which seems to show that the managers of our places of worship regulate their congregational arrangements not by the personal worth of the members of their churches, but by their ability to pay. On the other hand, it is alleged, not without reason, that it is quite impossible, by any ecclesiastical arrangements, to level social distinctions that respectable, well-dressed people will not sit in juxtaposition with working men and women, not always as clean as they should be, or free from what is unpleasant in their manners and habits. Besides, it is said that the latter would be much more comfortable aloof from the middle and upper classes in public assemblies; and that if there were places of worship for the working classes mainly, which they might regard as their own, and in which they might feel at home, they would be induced to attend in large numbers, especially if more attention were paid to them by the clergy, and by their influential neighbours taking a kindly interest in their welfare, and help-ing to observe that the educational and religious agencies ing them out of their difficulties. The working classes, to a large extent, regard the clergy as hirelings, who would not care for their souls at all if they were not paid for it, and who, even in their zeal, are influenced by self-interest and professional ambition. This feeling towards Christian ministers is nurtured by a pernicious kind of cheap literature, which circulated very largely among the working classes till it was supplanted so extensively by a different class of publications, conveying useful knowledge and healthful entertainment, in connection with the soundest principles in morals and religion. It is only by personal intercourse, unpaid lay agency, and extra official exertions, that such a fatal suspicion of the clergy, and such practical alienation from Christianity in the most intelligent of the working classes, can be overcome. Again, it should be remembered that people who are hard-worked during the Census, 1851-"Religious Worship," p. 158. But although the light of Christianity has not directly penetrated the masses to anything like the extent that is desirable and practicable, it is a fact that its reflected influence has had a vast effect in promoting social reform of every kind. The picture which we have had presented to us of the old roads of England is not a greater contrast to the present state of things, than the picture of manners and morals in the early part of this century, as compared with the present moral condition of society. It is gratify which have been at work during the last generation have been very far from being inoperative. The reformatory results, though not all that we could desire, have been immense, and have effected a complete change in the aspect of society, a change as great as the conversion of a rake into a sober and respectable member of the community. The report of the select committee of the House of Commons appointed in 1835 to inquire into the state of education of the people in England and Wales, contains an amount of information concerning the increased and increasing decency of deportment within the present age, which is of the highest value. Among the many witnesses examined was Mr. Francis Place, who for more than half a century had been an attentive observer of the condition and conduct of the working people in London, and, to a considerable extent, throughout the kingdom generally. Scenes and events which he represented as being of common, every-day occurrence when he was an apprentice, TO 1837.] IMPROVEMENT IN PUBLIC MORALS. are such as would be unbearable now, and have wholly ceased. Speaking of the habits of tradesmen and masters, he says, "The conduct of such persons was exceedingly gross as compared with the same class at the present time. Decency was a very different thing from what it is now; their manners were such as scarcely to be credited. I remember, when a boy of ten years of age, being at a party of twenty, entertained at a respectable tradesman's, who kept a good house in the Strand, where songs were sung which cannot now be more than generally described from their obscenity. There were then few rational enjoyments at home; the men were seldom at home in the evening, except there were card-playing and drinking; they spent 349 "Books were openly sold in the shops of booksellers in leading streets which can only be procured clandestinely now. I have seen the Prayer-book, the racing calendar, and these books, bound alike side by side in very respectable shop-windows in the leading streets. Between Blackfriars and Westminster Hall there were fourteen clubs, at which the amusements were smoking, drinking, swearing, and singing obscene songs. I do not believe there has been a club of the sort for many years past within the same space. There are a few of them still in London, but very few; they are held in very obscure places, and frequented by the very worst of the community. The places of public resort, the tea-gardens, were formerly as notorious as they their time in a very useless, and but too generally a very mischievous manner. I made inquiries a few years ago, and found that between Temple Bar and Fleet Market there were many houses in each of which there were more books than all the tradesmen's houses in the street contained when I was a youth. The ballads sung about the streets and the books openly sold cannot be adequately described. I have given you in writing words of some common ballads which you would not think fit to have uttered in this committee. At that time the songs were of the most indecent kind; no one would mention them in any society now they were publicly sung, and sold in the streets and markets. VOL. VII. No. 342, were infamous-the 'Dog and Duck,' for instance. I have been there when almost a mere boy, and there seen the flashy women come out to take leave of the thieves at dusk and wish them success. The 'Apollo Gardens' was another of these infamous places. It was opened under the pretence of musical entertainments, and there was the Temple of Flora; it was a long gallery, fitted up in a superb manner, and when lighted was a very fascinating place. Another of these places was the 'Bull-in-Pound,' Spa Fields, frequented by thieves and dissolute people. In Gray's Inn Lane was the 'Blue Lion,' commonly called the 'Blue Cat.' I have seen the landlord of this place come into the long room with a lump of silver in his hand, which he had melted for the thieves, and paid them for it. There was no disguise about it, it was done openly: there is no such place now. The amusements of the people were all of a gross nature. We hear much talk of the desecration of the Sabbath. At the time I am speaking of, there were scarcely any houses on the eastern side of Tottenham Court Road; there and in the long fields were several large ponds. The amusements here were duck-hunting and badger-baiting. They would throw a cat into the water and set dogs at her. Great cruelty was constantly practised, and the most abominable scenes used to take place. It is almost impossible for a person to believe the atrocities of low life at that time, which were not, as now, confined to the worst paid and most ignorant of the populace. I am not aware of any new vice having sprung up among the people; there has been a decrease of vice in every respect, and a great increase of decency and respectability." shops mentioned was greater than it was fifteen or twenty years ago, Mr. Alison stated that it was considerably increasing; that in 1824 every fourteenth house was a publichouse, and that the proportion since, and at different times ascertained, has been one in twelve, one in eleven, and, as already stated, in 1838, one in ten. Mr. Alison gives a deplorable account of the moral condition of the people of Glasgow. He says, "I think that in Glasgow there are 80,000 people (the whole population is 257,000) who have hardly any moral or religious education at all; they have hardly any education in worldly matters, and though they can most of them read and write, they are, practically speaking, uneducated." It would be indeed surprising if, under these circumstances, the population of Glasgow were to exhibit any but the lowest state of morals; and the various particulars given by Mr. Alison of their coarseness and brutality seem to follow as a necessary consequence from the neglect of which they are thus the victims. It is at once a consequence of the comparative sobriety of the age, and a help to its continuance, that great numbers of houses have been opened for the sale of cups of coffee and tea at low prices. It is said that there are from 1,600 to 1,800 of these coffee-houses in the metropolis alone, and that they are established and rapidly increasing all over the country. About thirty years ago there were not above the prices charged for the refreshment they afforded were such as to limit to a very few the number of their customers. Some interesting information concerning these establishments was given before the committee of 1840, which was appointed to inquire concerning the operation of the several duties levied on imports, and popularly known as the "Import Duties Committee." The foregoing passages, which, for the sake of brevity, have been put into the narrative form, are extracted from answers made by Mr. Place, when under examina- | tion by the committee. The only liberty that has been taken is the suppression of some of the more revolting circumstances brought forward by Mr. Place, in illustration of his opinion. When asked, "To what do you principally attribute those improvements? " Mr. Place answered "To information! You will find, as the working people | a dozen of those houses to be found in London, and in these get more information, they will get better habits." He added, "Every class above another teaches that below it: the journeyman tradesman is above the common labourer, and manners descend from class to class." The whole of the evidence given by Mr. Place on this occasion is of the deepest interest to all who wish to study with the aim of remedying the moral evils of society by rational, and therefore by practical means. The sobriety which among The charge made at these houses for a cup of excellent educated persons has taken place of a contrary habit has coffee, with sugar and milk, varies from one penny in a great degree been adopted by the labouring classes up to threepence. One house in Gerrard Street, Hayalso. It is true, there is still much of intoxication among market, is mentioned, where the charge is three halfus, and much of other vices and crimes to which habitual pence, and the daily customers average from 1,500 to intoxication surely leads the way. Scenes of depravity do 1,600 persons of all classes, from hackney-coachmen and not now court the public gaze quite so shamelessly, but the porters to the most respectable classes, including many "Apollo Gardens," the "Dog and Duck," and other places foreigners. The house opens at half-past five in the mornof popular resort in those days, have their successors in the ing, and closes at half-past ten at night. The inducement casinos, music-halls, and other hotbeds of immorality, which to frequent these houses is not confined to the coffee or are still tolerated among us. Our seaports are still liable to tea that is provided; but the frequenters are furnished the old reproach of drunken habits; and the reform has not with a variety of newspapers and periodical publications. as yet made any deep impression upon the working people In the coffee-house just mentioned there are taken fortyof Scotland. Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. Alison, sheriff of three London daily papers (including several copies of the Lanarkshire, in his evidence given before the committee leading journals), seven country papers, six foreign papers, on combinations of workmen in 1838, speaking of the habit twenty-four monthly magazines, four quarterly reviews, of intemperance in Scotland, said, "I know opium is used to and eleven weekly periodicals. The proprietor of another a certain extent, but I think whisky there supersedes every- house stated to the committee that he had paid £400 a thing. In short, I may mention one fact to the committee, year for newspapers, magazines, and binding. He said, "I which will illustrate the extent to which the use of whisky have upon the average 400 to 450 persons that frequent is carried. In London the proportion of public-houses to my house daily; they are mostly lawyers' clerks, and other houses is as one to fifty-six; in Glasgow it is as one to commercial men; some of them are managing clerks; and ten: every tenth house in Glasgow is a spirit-shop. I should there are many solicitors, likewise highly respectable say, as far as my statistical researches have gone, that the gentlemen, who take coffee in the middle of the day in proportion of whisky drunk in Glasgow is twice or thrice preference to a more stimulating drink. I have often asked as much as in any similar population upon the face of the myself the question where all that number of persons could globe." Being asked whether the proportion of spirit-possibly have got their refreshments prior to opening my |