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 BRITAIN'S WRECK 
 
 BREAKEES AHEAI), 
 
 AN OLD HAND ON BOAED 
 
 '• .MONITI MELIOKA SEQUAMUR. 
 
 ITnite: 
 
 ilOULSTON AND STONEMAN, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 HINCKLEY: T. SHORT. 
 
 1853. 
 
BRITAIN'S WRECK 
 
 BREAKERS AHEAD. 
 
 AN OLD HAND ON BOAED 
 
 '-MONITI MELIORA SEQUAMUR/' 
 
 tmhu : 
 
 IIOULSTON AND STONEMAN, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 HINCKLEY: T. SHORT. 
 
 1853. 
 

BX5I57 
 
 In compliance with current copyright 
 
 law, U.C. Library Bindery produced 
 
 this replacement volume on paper 
 
 that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48- 
 
 1984 to replace the irreparably 
 
 deteriorated original. 
 
 1991 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 The following pages were, for the most part, intended 
 for the Press two years ago; and the Author does 
 not now make public this fearful misgiving of his 
 country^s safety, without being fully prepared for the 
 shower of missiles, which it must naturally draw upon 
 him from the traitors' hands, that are now daily pulling 
 down stone by stone, the fortress of our strength and 
 glory. The cry of " antiquated,^' " bigoted," " narrow- 
 minded,'' "illiberal," "gone by," and "too-late," will 
 all come, no doubt, with a good grace from throats 
 ever more distended with the destructive yell of " Pro- 
 gress ;" and from hearts beating high with the antici- 
 pated overthrow of a matchless Polity, in which their 
 mediocrity and malignity have hitherto struggled in 
 vain for power, respect or distinction. 
 
 JuxK, 1853. 
 
BRITAIN'S WRECK, 
 
 BREAKEES AHEAD. 
 
 It is the part of tlie Patriot, to think well of his country under 
 all circumstances ; — in difficulties to hope the best : — to cling to 
 her more closely in perilous times ; — in contest to nail his colours 
 to the mast, and to bless her with his parting breath. 
 
 But how is it when the State is misguided and misgoverned, — 
 landsmen at the helm, — and when the 
 
 spumea circum 
 
 Saxa fremunt, — 
 
 When rocks foam-mantled roar around ?" 
 
 What is the loyal Briton to do, when the Legislature, discarding 
 the National Paith, as a qualification, fii'st and foremost, of its 
 members, becomes merely secular, infidel, or corrupt; — when 
 our Statesmen are illiterate, or half-educated, — experimental, 
 fool-hardy, presumptuous; — when ^ party' actually blinds, deafens, 
 deadens ; — when it defies reason, principle, experience ; — when 
 our veiy rulers, to serve factious feelings, become traitors to 
 
*•' The CoxsriTUiiON :''^ I answer, — the real patriot changes 
 not, — trims not, — truckles not, — despairs not. — His duty is the 
 same : l)ut it takes this colour from the times : — his prayers 
 become more fervent, — his complaints and remonstrances more 
 importunate, — his eflforts more energetic, — ^his zed more wakeful 
 and unremitted in working his country's deliverance by the 
 discomfiture and expulsion of her enemies ; — while his public 
 reprobation of political compromise, tampering, and concession, — 
 no less than of secret tergiversation and treachery is found to be 
 daily more unflinching, — more continuous and trumpet-tongued. 
 And now, let me ask, what are the signs of the times, — the 
 features and movements of the present age, which so deeply 
 afflict the British patriot? While we have seen abroad, in forms 
 as lamentable as they have been instructive, " distress of nations," 
 have we not been visited at home by an awful and ominous 
 "perplexity?" Have we not felt at our hearts' core, to use 
 language in keeping with our nautical title, that now for a long 
 time, 
 
 " Our timbers groan beneath the blast and surge ;"t 
 and may we not add, in solemn truth, 
 
 ♦ "I feel" (continued the noble earl,) "?nos« deeply many things which pass be/are my 
 eyes day after day, indicating, as I think, that however this country may have increased in 
 wealth,— though not in proportion to the increase of wealth among other nations, — hut, 
 whatever its increase of wealth, indicating that we are not, at any rate, in mind, spirit, 
 and statesman-like wisdom the great people we once were. Nay, mare than that, I wUl state, 
 that looking at what is occurring day after day, at the ijtboads made on OITB OLD 
 E8TABLI8HMKXT8, and the disregard shown to those who deserve the best of the country, I 
 am led to believe, that onb of the gbbatest calamities, which can affect a con- 
 
 STfTUnOSAL STATE, 18 THE LONO-PBOTBACTED COKTINUASCE OF A WEAK AND TIIHD 
 
 GovEBNMENT."— (Close of the Earl of EUenborough's speech in moving for certain 
 Reports and Returns, relative to the Merchant Seaman's Fund.— House of Lords, 
 Thursday, July 10, 1851}— Times, Friday, July 11, 1851.— Whatever may be his 
 lordship's opinions on other matters, he has here given expression to a feeling of 
 distrust and dismay upon the subject of our national character and prosperity, in 
 which he is entirely supported by facts, and with which, we sincerely believe, that 
 at the present time, every thoughtful and loyal EngUshman must sympathize. 
 
 t " "Vcntls tabulae feriuntur et andls." 
 
** Dashed from our course, we flounder in the dark/'* 
 
 The vessel of our state is indeed fearfully tossed, misdirected, 
 and in the utmost danger. All on board perceive it : and only 
 one conclusion is entertained by serious minds of all classes and 
 calibres. It is this : — The sooner we " bout ship " the better : f 
 for a judicial blindness must impede the vision of that man, 
 who, notwithstanding our boasted wealth and power and name 
 among the nations, does not mark around him strange and most 
 alarming prognostics of not merely grievous insecurity, but of 
 actual decadence in our wantonly and wilfully impaired " Con- 
 stitution;" who does not, in melancholy truth, feel within 
 him a sickening sense of rottenness, — of national degeneracy 
 and apostasy, — as to all sound Christian truly British policy 
 in every vital matter or question both of Church and State. 
 High time, indeed, it is, that we see and confess honestly our 
 blunders no less than our degradation, — that we go back to the 
 point of aberration, — and by renewed adherence to the "old 
 ways," resume our position in the scale of nations, and in the 
 SIGHT OP God. 
 
 But, if such be our present perilous condition, what, it will be 
 asked, are the sources and the causes of Britain's decline, — 
 
 * Excutimur cursu, et coccis erramus in undia. 
 
 \ Amongst the traitors to their country, the restless demagogue, revolutionist, and 
 ever-meddling whig-radical, it has been for a longtime the practice to casta prestige 
 of 'impossibility^ over the recuri'ence to once-forsaken paths of safe national policy. 
 " Vestigia nulla retrorsum !" is their cry. The movements of a people, say they, 
 must be ever onward. There can be no returns,— all must be " Proffress." And truly 
 for their principles of subversion, nothing can be more effectual than such a maxim : — 
 For if rightly interpreted, it conveys this frightful assertion, that nations cannot bo 
 made wiser by past errors, past delusions, past transgressions, and are therefore 
 bound to advance coolly on to destruction, when once they have been misled or have 
 themselves run counter to conscience, experience, or common sense. Their guides 
 have ignorantly or maliciously conducted them on the road to ruin, but they must 
 not retrace their steps, because forsooth it is impossille. It is only individuals and 
 small communities can do this, and therefore on tlicy must proceed, even over the 
 precipice before their eyes I " itiircly in vain the not Is "sprrad in the '^ight of any 
 bird !" 
 
6 
 
 which, even if it be more easy to bewail than to remedy or 
 remove, all should, however, combine in narrowly investigating. 
 It is certain, that we can do no harm, in an attempt at least, to- 
 point out a few of those elements of ultimate ruin, which seem 
 at this time, with the force and latency of diy-rot, to be sapping 
 and supplanting our strength and our stability, as a truly free, 
 prosperous, and exalted nation, — a people hitherto powerful, 
 respected, opiilent, refined, and "understanding"* because 
 religious, or piously and peculiarly Protestant, and therefore 
 favoured by Heaven. 
 
 Needless and unavailing must now be the question, — " How 
 many of our Rulers have, of late, shown themselves sensible of 
 the magnitude of our National mercies, or of the Hand that 
 dispensed them?" Alas! my countrymen, if the days of ven- 
 geance are at hand, for our ingratitude, — for our daring self- 
 sufficiency and political infidelity, — which appears anything but 
 improbable, — what will it benefit us to remember, that such 
 blessings have been, to know that they are forfeited, and that we 
 are fallen ? " What," may we well ask ourselves in the words 
 of the Prophet, " What shall we do in the day of our visitation ?" 
 
 And now, then, as I proposed, let me humbly venture to 
 contribute something towards this inquiry, by enumerating a 
 
 • The real intelli;jence and wisdom of nations, called Christian, must be the same 
 iu all ages, and are no other than obedience to Ilim " by whom kings reign " and 
 who "ruleth over all:" to Uim who made them a nation, who preserves them as a 
 nation, and who prospers them eventually as a nation, (however wise in their own 
 Imaginations,) onZi^ In proportion to that obedience. But a remarkable and instructive 
 fact connected with the word " understanding people," as used in the passage, from 
 which I have taken it, is this :— The obedience of such nations blesses not themselves 
 alone. Their example and prosperity are a lesson and incentive to other large com- 
 manities. " Keep, therefore," said Moses to the Israelites, in his premonitory address to 
 them on their perilous entrance upon the land of Canaan, " Keep, therefore, and do these 
 statutes and Judgments of the Lord your God, for this is your wisdom and your 
 understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and 
 ■ay,—' Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people !' " Their great- 
 ness was to be the consequence of their wisdom, — and their wisdom nothing more than 
 their obedience to the laws of their Almighty Guide and Governor: while both were 
 to edify and encourage the natiooB around. 
 
few symptoms and causes of our present national declension, from 
 what I would presume to think i\iQ fundamental principles of our 
 greatness and prosperity. I shall range them as they present 
 themselves to my mind without any regard to order or connexion 
 in their subject matter. 
 
 I. 
 
 Mammonism or Idolatry of Money; — and in its reckless pursuit 
 the contempt of human life, human happiness, human morals, 
 and the great end and purpose of human existence, 
 
 II. 
 
 The infidel, but successful struggle, by State sophistry, to 
 separate Politics from " Religion," although our statesmen must 
 know that "Politics" is a branch of " Morals," and that "Morals," 
 with the Christian, can be nothing less than " Eeligion." 
 
 III. 
 
 The shock to cordial loyalty, and social confidence and respect, 
 from distrust of sound Religious Principles and Church of 
 England predilections in high quarters and high classes.* 
 
 IV. 
 
 Fatal ignorance in Eulers, Statesmen and Legislators of the 
 true nature, basis and gradual cementation of our matchless 
 "limited monarchy," and therefore of the integral union of 
 " Church and State," the veiy ground-work of our prosperity, 
 under its decidedly Christian and Protestant polity. 
 
 V. 
 
 Supineness of even the good and wise amongst us, in regard- 
 ing the effrontery and enroachments of Infidelity, Popery, and 
 democratic liberalism, with a kind of stupified horror and dismay, 
 instead of vigorously putting them down by straining every 
 
 * Besides other instances of laxity, how few of our nobility and great landed or 
 monied gentry, comparatively speaking, subscribe to our leading Christian societies, 
 or participate in their noble efforts to evangelize the world. Let those who doubt 
 this statement, extract the names of noble men and noble ladies, or what are called 
 the ^^ higher classes of society" from the lists of subscribers to the Societies for "Pro- 
 moting " or for "Propagating the Gospel" for "Additional Curates," or "Church 
 Puilding," for "National Education," or " Colonial Bishops." 
 
8 
 
 euergy in the cause of God and tlieii- countiy, — purging the 
 constituencies, — multiplying churches and church-schools, — 
 and rejecting or removing at once the Ministers of State, — of 
 deistical or sectarian education, — who degrade or endanger, — 
 and, still more, who betray the nation in any one of its essential 
 interests. " Impeachment,'^ alas ! is a measure far too patriotic 
 and high-spirited for the ^' gentlemanly^^ feebleness of these 
 days. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The factious pertinacity of selfish, uninformed and inexperienced 
 legislators in espousing dishonestly and at all hazards, party 
 measures, requiring much reading, research, and the most dis- 
 passionate consideration. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The vulgar jealousy and feverish innovating pruriency of upstart 
 wealth, which is ever struggling to elevate itself by the decrial 
 and subversion of what is established, tried and venerated 
 amongst us, even at the risk of revolution, or, what they would 
 fain affect, a Republic ; forgetftil that before that coveted nul- 
 lenium of theirs, the flood-gates must first be opened to the Tnob 
 for * Social Conmiunism ' and ' Fraternity ;' or else unmindful 
 that other kindred, but more opulent * malcontents ' ^vill, in 
 that event, carry it against themselves by their own favourite 
 means of money, bribery and brute force, and so " hoist them 
 with their own petard."* 
 
 * Every motire of noble feeling, of common gratitude, nay of common sense, to say 
 nothing of loyalty or patriotism, might, one would imagine, attach these money- 
 makers to the great insUtutions of the country, under whose auspices and conmierce 
 they have amassed their wealth. As to clearly and duly estimating, or even under- 
 standing their value, it can scarcely be expected of men whose time and thoughts 
 have been so fully engaged in a multiplicity of business,— of watching, forecasting, 
 calculating and speculating. But the least they can do, we might suppose would be, 
 to give stability to the utmost of their power, to the public government and state of 
 things, through whose protection and wise arrangements they have so securely 
 prospered ; to reverence the glorious but complicated weal of limited monarchy which 
 has raised their native country to its eminence in power and civilization and pure 
 religion; and not to envy and calumniate and denounce those dignified classes in 
 Church and State, amongst which, by a soond and ingennoas education, their 
 
9 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The miserably defective education of so many of our nobility 
 and gentry, from densely-crowded " public schools," in which 
 the clever are made to maintain the credit of the place, while 
 the vast majority, namely the slow, the lazy, and the 'untalented/ 
 as they are called, must, of necessUy, from the want of an adequate 
 number of masters, and from the unavoidable absence of close, 
 kindly and constant attention to individual character, be sadly 
 neglected.* 
 
 IX. 
 
 The natural consequences of such neglect, in too many in- 
 stances, — namely, want of information, disaffection, invidious 
 feeling, presumption, love of change, an ostentatious contempt 
 of learning, history, experience, and of all our time-compacted 
 institutions, on which they are so grossly ignorant as not to know 
 that the greatness of the country has been reared and so 
 long supported. This is often deplorably manifest in those sons 
 of our gentry and higher orders of society, who have, in the 
 course of time, after the starveling education of such fashionable 
 and multitudinous schools, become our legislators and statesmen, 
 our rulers, magistrates, and responsible public officials, with 
 
 children may soon take a leading position, and acknowledge, with all thankfulness, 
 the distinguished blessing of having been raised to the aristocracy of their country 
 by their fathers industry, skill and high commercial character. 
 
 * I must do myself the justice to say, that I have read the published defences and 
 apologies of such enormous establishments. I have given due weight, I believe, to 
 the "microcosmic" arguments of their champions in the leading Reviews, and I 
 think the rhetoric of pious " alumni," or of interested advocates, could scarcely go 
 farther; but the interior defects of the system have been slurred over. The 
 vigilant supervision by night and day,— the gentle culture of the weak or meek,— 
 the pruning or training of peculiarities of mind or temper, — the prevention of 
 vicious infection and example, — the preservation of personal delicacy and modesty, — 
 the exclusion of mischievous publications, — the minute enforcement of economy,— 
 the effectual prohibition of secret carousals, debauchery, gambling and cigars,— witli 
 the numberless items, which fall under the head of a quasiparental superintendence, 
 have been carefully evaded, or contemptuously palliated. As to the rest, tlie " little 
 world," as it is pleaded, of a monstrous school may, as to exterior assurance in 
 manners and early acquaintance with vice, initiate youth for the "great world;' 
 but the question is— how does it train and nurture them for another world ? 
 
10 
 
 minds undisciplined and uninformed, — and with hearts, I fear, 
 entirely insensible to the nature and to the extent of the bless- 
 ings, political and religious, obtained and so jealously cherished 
 by their forefathers. 
 
 X, 
 
 Kabid hostility, from ignorance and envy, towards our blended 
 polity of " Church and State," the real palladium of our stability, 
 on the part of almost all classes of Dissenters, as well as of all 
 Whigs who naturally hate the Clergy, — of Liberalists, Deists, 
 Political Economists, Germanizing nationalists, " Philosophers " 
 falsely so called, — and, above all, Papists, — the natural and the 
 constant supporters of our "Whig Administrations, ever on the 
 stretch and strain for temporal ascendancy by a so-called 
 •* religion," which means the prostration of mind and soul under 
 priestly tyranny, — a system, which that blended polity of Church 
 and State, while there were no traitors in the camp^ rendered 
 utterly innocuous.* 
 
 XI. 
 
 Infidel views and assumptions from purely scientific advances 
 and discoveries in the world of "matter'^ and mechanical 
 knowledge only. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Party profligacy in conferring derogatory appointments and in 
 securing mischievous elections, which last are the source of so 
 much legislative venality and foolhardiness in innovations and 
 
 * One of these very enlightened Liberals, whose eloquence has been considered like 
 bcantv, not to " need the foreign aid of ornament," has lately observed in the House of 
 Commons,— That he, for one, would " adopt the principle of abolishing all endotements 
 for reliffious purposes, and leaving all religions to maintain themselves." (Loud Cheers/) 
 " And those were the broad principles on which he had been brought to act,— not, he 
 repeated, from any predilection of voluntaryism : he had always gone to church him' 
 self: his mother took him there : and as a rule, they all went where their mothers' took 
 them." Britons,— this is one of your Liberal legislators 1 one of a multitude in the 
 House of Commons, who, although perhaps not all of their mothers' took them to 
 Church, are, from deep research, conscientious attachment and holy zeal for its world- 
 wide reception, constituted the lawmakers and guardians of the Catholic and 
 Apostolic Church eitablisbbd in these realms!.! 
 
11 
 
 ■even organic changes, with the sacrifice of long-tried safeguards 
 and securities to personal interest or aggi'andizement, factious 
 virulence, or overweening experimentalism.* 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Church Superintendents and Ovei'seers without oversight; 
 *' Ministers " who would be masters. Unremitted, paternal 
 superintendence too often wanting in the one ; intimate, cease- 
 less, thoroughly humble and affectionate intercourse with the souls 
 committed to their charge on the other. We see amongst the 
 clergy on all sides, far too much hierophantic pretension and 
 domination, self-importance, and "lording over God's heritage ;" 
 whereas, even their " Great High-Priest " had designated Him- 
 self " meek and lowly in heart ;" had warned his Apostles — 
 *' He that would be great among you, let him be your servant," 
 your ^^ Minister ;" and had uttered by anticipation this reproof 
 of all clerical or priestly pride and prelatical haughtiness, (which, 
 I fear, may have led so many of om- opinionated young clergy 
 to Popery) — " Behold ! I am with you, as he that serveth.'* 
 
 xrv. 
 
 A ruinously divided " Church Established," weak in propor- 
 tion to its rents, and ramifications of departure from the sober, 
 sound, via media, of orthodoxy, or, in other words, of the Bible, 
 of " the faith once delivered to the saints," as declared and 
 
 * Ho-w few men are there in this busy and hitherto prospered land who are aware 
 ihat they are living on from day to day, not under the security and stability of the 
 old, real and genuine " Constitution " of this country, but under the substitutes and 
 makeshifts of cowardly and treacherous administrations, or the professed experiments 
 of time-serving and place-loving " Liberals." It is true, that the momentum imparted 
 from past ages of truly patriotic government, may still keep upright the devious 
 machinery upon its novel and dangerous course ; but who has contemplated the 
 precipice to which we may be surely, nay, and hastily advancing ? The Constitution 
 is no more ! "stat nominis umbra." God send we may not ere long be the victims 
 of our republican, deistical and deadly empiricism ! With a House of Commons 
 thronged with hungry lawyers, as it now is, and charmed with the Whig leader's 
 *' enlarged views," — i. e., artful nostrums of Extension of the Suffrage, and his most 
 Liberal removal of the Christian pledge of our Legislators, and the Christian 
 Catechism of our Schools, — what are the remaining checks to our downfall from 
 the first of the nations to a province of France ? 
 
12 
 
 illustrated by its Articles, Ritual and OlHces ; yet retaining 
 openly under its sanction (from the lack of discipline and synodal 
 disclaimer, in some form or other, possessed by every conventicle 
 in the country,) Homanism, Calvinism, Erastianism, Antiuomi- 
 anism, Socinianism, if not actual Deism and Atheism. In 
 the two leading aberrations from the real, I mean purely 
 scriptural doctrines of the Church of England, — of Tractarianism 
 or Popery on the one hand, and Puritanism, or, as it is in point 
 of fact, Calvinism on the other, Ave see finely exemplified the 
 lengths to which ''form " on that side, and ''feeling " on this,* 
 can blind and mystify and degrade the human mind. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Men of title, large property, ancient family and conspicuous 
 standing in society, actually espousing and professing, under the 
 garb of " IFJiiggery" — either from disappointed conceit, or 
 ambition, from interested views, or from personal pique or party 
 malignity, Democratic and Radical sentiments, which, in their 
 
 * The plain Scriptural truth with respect to Baptism, appears to be this: — 
 Baptism as being the Sacrament of admission into the Church of Christ, — or, in other 
 words, that indispensable rite, by which our nature, alienated hy primeval sin, is to 
 be reconciled to God, in order that it may commence the Christian life, is called by our 
 Saviour most appropriately, " Regeneration," or a " New Birth " by " Water and the 
 Holy Ghost." Now, this "renascence" by " the wasA/w^ of regeneration," can take placeat 
 no other time than in Baptism: and whether young, adult, or old, receive Baptism, then 
 and there to such persons must, of necessity, be imparted grace ; for where the 
 ''Holy Ghost" is given, there niMst be given at the same time '^ grace ;" and, more 
 over, by the communication of that same ^^ grace" must, of necessity, be conveyed 
 also " remission of sins " and admission to Divine favour. Here we see exactly the 
 doctrine of the Church of England, so explicitly set forth in her Catechism and 
 Baptismal Offices. To talk therefore of a " Regeneration " subsequent and foreign to 
 Baptism, is either altogether to deny the efficacy of Infant Baptism, or to substitute 
 "Regeneration" aud "personal Election" for "Repentance ;" for that deep sorrowing 
 for sin, which, through the Redeemer's merits, is to reinstate man after every lapse of 
 wilful disobedience within the pale of his offended Father's mercy and gracious for- 
 giveness. But only admit the Calviniatic construction of the term " Regeneration," 
 and you at once give the reins to individual feeling and fancy as to the time and 
 efficacy of the " New Birth," or inde/ectibU "c&l\s" by inward pangs and throes of 
 conscience. And, now, what becomes of the Saviour's sure standard of " fruits," 
 as the testof FaiUi? And how are the poor illiterate fold to do otherwise, than 
 think themselves "Ehet" upon any agonizing compunction of real penitence i 
 
13 
 
 Kearta, tlicy can neither believe nor approve ; but which, they 
 must be aware, if carried out, would lead infallibly to a general 
 scramble,* and end in military despotism. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The failure in that generously wide hospitality, that kindly 
 interest and intercourse, which are the cement and "clientela " 
 of Christian society, and which distinguished once so beneficially 
 our higher and wealthier classes ; exclusiveness of the nobility 
 and gentry of the land, in living too much to and for themselves ; 
 frequent neglect and real contempt of their less affluent neigh- 
 bours ; and not unusual discountenance of the Church, or sever- 
 ance without cause from the parochial clergy, as well as a refusal 
 to support the many religious and charitable societies and insti- 
 tutions, which bring a blessing upon the country. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The godless presumption, that the Almighty regards not wJio 
 are our legislators : and that, although we can exist only here as 
 a " nation,'' yet He will not visit for our " national " abandon- 
 ment of religious " Tests " in their selection. Discarding all 
 the quibbles and sophistry of " Liber alisyn^' which needs such 
 support, how should we answer it to God, if we admitted 
 amongst the constitutional framers of our laws for Church and 
 State, a set of persons, divinely expatriated, having no interest 
 in our welfare and prosperity, but that of moneys who, in their 
 hearts and doctrines, hold our Saviour to be an impostor ; and 
 who, by their wealth, would influence or introduce into the 
 
 * How shaU an EngUshman ever reconcUe himself ander a constitutional limited 
 monarchy, like his own, in which the aristocracy and the clergy are from privilege 
 and interest, as well as necessity, the two great antagonistic influences against the 
 disturbing forces of Mammonism, Capelocracy, and Communism, — how can a British 
 patriot, I say, ever reconcile himself to a solecism in /ac<, as in language, so disgust- 
 ing as a " Liberal," (i. e^ democratic or VHiig-radical) " Nobleman " or " Clergyman f' 
 What mischief may not be expected from the distortion of mind, the bitterness of 
 spirit, or love of place or preferment, which impels men thus to desert for party pur- 
 poses their respectability, class and order in society ? Why are not statues out of 
 number erected to the man, who first invented the term " Liberal," as a plaster for 
 such imposthumes in the body politic? 
 
14 
 
 House of Commons, numbers bent only on the same objects with 
 themselves. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The traitorous pampering and patronage of Popery in high 
 places, for mere party purposes of place and power ; and its invari- 
 able consequences, — the bullying, rampancy, and audacious 
 inroads of its wily and worldly priesthood. "What real English- 
 man has not felt at heart the base compromise of Christian 
 principle in the Irish Educational Scheme, the Maintenance of 
 Maynooth, the exaltation of Romish prelates in precedence above 
 the nobility of the land, — the ignorant and and fulsome transfer 
 to them of baronial titles, — and (" liorresco referens") the 
 wholesale extinction of tex bishoprics in Ireland, where, on 
 the score of their office, expenditure, charities, example, educa- 
 tion and civilizing residence and habits, twice the number would 
 have been desirable ; to say nothing of the vile screening of priestly 
 outrages at elections, and the sacrilegious aggression upon the 
 sacred orders, functions, privileges, and property of our church. 
 The Whig-Liberals and Whig-Eadicals now in power, who could 
 not retain office for a day without this truckling to Popery and 
 democracy, have at length, that they may effectually ^^ dar 
 garrote^' and strangle their old enemy, " the Church of England," 
 formed an unscrupulous confederacy with "black spirits and 
 white, — ^red spirits and grey," — a deadly jumble of " all false 
 doctrine, heresy and schism." 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The disgraceful fact, that the Church of England has been, 
 through culpable ignorance, or factious wilfulness, denominated 
 a "iecV^ by the very Ministers of State, who first degraded 
 it to the level of Schism, and then insulted, crippled, and 
 plundered it. 
 
 XX. 
 
 The signal withdrawal of Divine favour from this country, in 
 leaving us at so critical and portentous a time, as the present, 
 without a Statesman, or public character, whom the general 
 
15 
 
 opinion and confidence could select for the emergency ; in other 
 words, a man considered by all sound patriots, as transcendent 
 in abilities and eloquence, inured to public business, indefatigable 
 in labours and research, no less conversant with the fundamental 
 principles of our constitution in Church and State, than attached, 
 devotedly attached, to both ; and proving that attachment by 
 a jealous preservation of those bulwarks and buttresses, by which 
 alone its stability is secured ; a man inflexible in right, — daunt- 
 less in purpose as in principle, — an unflinching Protestant and 
 Churchman, however tolerant ; — and one, in short, who, from 
 his soul, fears God, and loves his country. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The insidious arts and advances of Popish agents and officials, 
 " whose own the sheep are not," upon our parishes, hearths, 
 and homes, — at this time sleeplessly and too often unsuspectedly 
 plotting and tampering, — seducing and engineering, through the 
 whole extent of the land. The subtle schemes for introducing 
 amongst us, as they have already done in part, those effectual 
 gags and fetters for their benighted victims, — domestic priests, 
 monasteries, nunneries, confessionals. These are the iron wedges, 
 sheathed in velvet, and most insinuatingly applied, which, with 
 one or two Cardinals, a territorial Episcopate, and above all. 
 Testamentary swindling and Prelatical Synods, would soon bring 
 about the consummation so devoutly to be wished by the Popish 
 hierarchy, and which, when systematically embodied and put in 
 action under Papal rescript and sanction, would soon make the 
 poor British Papist envy the galley-slave. Yet the countiy is 
 little aware of the lines of circumvallation above, and the spread- 
 ing mines below, which the stealthy sappers and deadly artillery 
 of that infidel host are at this time laying. Let the incredulous 
 mark well the vast supplies of money from hidden som'ces for 
 the maintenance of the most accomplished pioneers, for paying 
 *' perverts," — for feeding, clothing, and educating children 
 wheedled and decoyed from their friends and families, as well as 
 from their country's Seiptural and truly " Catholic " faith. 
 
16 
 
 Let him remark tLe wide dissemination of Romish tracts and 
 prints, under the most harmless, holy and fascinating titles : — 
 the subtle substitution of new school-books under specious 
 names ; — the corruption, castration, or interpolation of old ones ; 
 the traitorous subornation of the " press," for vamping up dis- 
 torted and mendacious history ; propapistic tales, marvels, 
 medioeval humbugs, narratives, novels, poems, travels, speeches, 
 sermons, — no less than for the insinuation of their foul, idola- 
 trous, and inveigling doctrines, catechisms and devotional " man- 
 uaUy^ containing their infernal (I speak deliberately) self-exami- 
 nations, into the hands and hearts of our young females, from 
 the highest to the lowest ; — thus working clandestinely but most 
 actively and effectually through society, in every class and 
 comer, — perversion of faith, — domestic distrust, — dissension and 
 misery ; — with the sure effacemeut of feminine bloom and at- 
 tractiveness by the early extinction of their characteristic purity 
 and delicacy. And, lastly, having observed all this, let him 
 dispassionately trace its causes in the dastardly abandonment of 
 strongholds, and frontier fortresses, which had been the im- 
 pregnable securities of our wiser forefathers. And, in these 
 times, let him notice the countenance and encouragement shown 
 openly by men in power to these intolerant, altar-cursing, " auto- 
 dafe," annihilating claimants of ascendancy, merely to continue 
 themselves in office by feeble majorities in that House of Parlia- 
 ment, where Papists are evermore a pestilential blight on all 
 constitutional legislation, and where they never should have 
 gained a footing to exert their inveterately anti-protcstant, — 
 anti-social, — anti-christian influences. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The alarming prevalence of intellectual pride, of an over- 
 weening conceit and self-sufficiency, which affects to know all 
 things, — which pronounces at once an " ex cathedi'a" opinion upon 
 any and every subject proposed to it. I say " alarming," because 
 the period should alarm us when, in a manner every thu'd man 
 we meet thinks he is able not onlv to decide for us in matters 
 
1 
 
 ilie most difficull or doubtful, — lo teach us all the '' olof/iea,'' 
 and lecture '' do omni scibili/' — Ijut to unravel off-hand and 
 explain to us points, problems, or passai^es, which it would have 
 cost our less courageous ancestors years to investigate and 
 understand. And whence comes tliis " intuitism " of Encyclo- 
 poedism ? These powers of " improvisation," — this " ready 
 change" of axioms, phraseology and superficial, if not rather 
 merely " vocabulary " knowledge, which form the stock-in-trade 
 of these neoteric philosophers and dogmatists, will, I think, if 
 carefully analysed, be found to be little more than the results of 
 our endemic rage for desultory reading and new publications, 
 fed and fostered, as it is, by myriads of newspapers,* " periodi- 
 cals," as they are called, popular lectures, reading societies and 
 royal roads of the day. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Dangerous absence of sound theological acquirements in our 
 young Clergy who, having perhaps, attained the honour of a ^^ double 
 fo'st,'^ as it is called, in Classics, Mathematics, Logic, Ethics,f 
 (Nicomachean and Paley) History, Sacred and Profane, Christian 
 Evidences, (Paley) and Greek and Latin construeing and compo- 
 sition, are too prone, I fear, to consider themselves perfectly and 
 invincibly equipped for the work and warfare of "the Ministry.'^ 
 The attainments are invaluable, I confess, as far as they go, and 
 are often purchased at the expense of a man's health for the rest 
 
 * What a responsible function in the sight of God and man, is the Editorship of a 
 newspaper ! That responsibility is naturally enhanced by the more extensive public 
 perusal of what are called its " leading articles ;" and the same awful accountable- 
 ness rests upon all popular writers. Both are entrusted with the power of influencing 
 and strongly biassing the minds of their readers, morally, poUtically, spiritually. 
 Yet, how few bear this in mind ! And what a mission for good has " The Times " 
 newspaper alone fnistrated and perverted! 
 
 t On the subject'of^'aley's work, (" Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy ") 
 perhaps I may be allowed to remark, (without entering here upon the merits of that 
 production,) that great blame attaches to Tutors and Universities, who use it without 
 adverting always to its invaluable corrective.— /Varson's " licmarks on the Theory of 
 ^foralsJ' 
 
18 
 
 of his life. Still, they must not pass for specifically professional 
 knowledge, for which a specific time and course of study should 
 be appropriated. Here it is, the enemy so often finds them 
 weak. Divinity, historical, controversial, exegetical, is wanting. 
 The fathers of the three first centuries, a period antecedent to 
 the existence of Popery, have not been consulted. Our standard 
 divines of the seventeenth century, who drank so deeply of the 
 pure waters of Kevelation, who exploded Schism, and after pulling 
 down the painted screens and puny props of Popery, exposed 
 the harlot, that had " committed fornication with the kings of 
 the earth," — and whose " mystery of iniquity " still works so 
 strongly as to make millions upon millions to ' believe a lie,' — 
 are unknown to them. For, how few among them, even if they 
 have heard of Hooker, Taylor, Stillingjleet, Sharpe, Barrow, 
 Leslie, have learned even the existence of such authors as 
 JFillet,* TFJiite, Cosin, FidJce, Crahanthorpe, Johnson, or 
 even Bramhall, with the galaxy of controversialists of that 
 century, whose giant powers and life-long labours leave the 
 student as astounded, as he is grateful. We find no such toil- 
 some and continuous devotion now-a-days of a whole existence 
 
 * I have been highly gratified in observing, that a new edition of this author's 
 invaluable work, the ^^ Synopsis Fapismi" is just announced. The republication of 
 Matthew Poole's " Dialogue between a Popish Priest and an English Protestant," a 
 tract amongst the plainest and most effectual refutations of the pleas and princi- 
 ples of Popery, is a most opportune present to every Protestant advocate of " the 
 truth as it is in Jesus." We trust that his " Nullity of the Romish Faith " will soon 
 follow. Valuable selections might also be made from Bishop Morton's works, Dr. 
 Field's great work on " The Church," and his Appendix to the fifth Book from Dr. 
 James and Bishop Jewell: not to mention others of the same irrefragable cast and 
 character; especially the work of Daille, entitled, "JoTiannis Dallcei de Sacra- 
 mentali, Sive Auriculari Latinorum Conftssume Disputatio, "which, by a judicious 
 translation, might be rendered a popular preservative against the priestly attempts 
 to foist " Auricular Confession " into the service of our Church. This treatise com- 
 mences by the following sentence in the Epistle dedicatory :— " If any one would 
 inspect a littie more carefully and scrutinize more profoundly, that power which the 
 Bishop of Rome exercises over a race of Christiana he would find, or I am much 
 mlstoken, that there rarely or never existed upon earth a dominion whose influence, 
 sovereignty and awe, were established by deeper craft, or varnished over with mora 
 exquisite colouring for the minds of its vassals." 
 
19 
 
 to abstnise reading, research and intellectual warfare in the 
 cause of Truth. But, sui-ely, our young Clergy are not charge- 
 able with omitting what they had no time to do ? Certainly not. 
 Yet this brings me to a remark, (by way of inference from what 
 has been said,) which is easily to be tested by experience and 
 observation, and which the present times, and the subsequent 
 laborious life of a Curate, render pecuharly cogent. It is this. 
 Were our Candidates for Holy Orders not humcd off from the 
 University " Schools " to the hands of the Bishop, but obliged 
 to digest for careful examination by the latter, or by his Chaplain, 
 a course of Di-vinity, including select works from those noble 
 champions of the Eeformation, — and if, moreover, they were 
 not allowed to take Orders, till they were Jive and ticenty, after 
 two years, at least, devoted to such indispensable professional 
 studies, they would not merely know thoroughly the difference 
 between Calvinism and Christianity, but would as soon turn 
 Pagans as Papists. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 The exclusion (systematic, I presume, because invariable,) by 
 men in power, of a full public acknowledgment of God's govern- 
 ance of the world; — I mean the absence in public acts and 
 documents of an entire and reverential reference of our national 
 blessings, greatness and prosperity, to God's favour and God's 
 forbearance, by an apparently studied omission of the sense and 
 grateful avowal of undeserved mercies on the one hand, and a 
 seeming aversion on the other, to the contrite recognition of 
 God's displeasure, or of His penal retribution in the several 
 distresses or emban'assments of the country. ATe know there is 
 a Godless " Political Economy," and a magniloquent philosophical 
 dialect in Political men, which extols or bewails only secondary 
 causes, — and which, under an affected scruple to speak of "judg- 
 ments," as something far beyond their powers of explanation or 
 assignment, loses sight of the fact, that, as nations, or large 
 confederated communities of men, kingdoms and governments, 
 have their existence confined to this worlds — and that, therefore. 
 
30 
 
 their offences of public ii-religion and infidelity can be nationally 
 and collectively punished in this world only. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The glaring defect of sturdy religious education, principhs and 
 motives, in the several constituencies of the country. Hence the 
 little regard generally paid upon this point to the character, 
 sentiments and previous history of the candidate, who is to 
 represent them. It matters not, one might imagine, in nine 
 cases out of ten, who or what he is, or whence he comes ; — 
 *' Colchus an Assyrius, — ^Thebis nutritus an Argis." 
 " Jesuit or Jew, — St. Alban's or Long-shore." 
 They appear to patronize either the fiercest demagogue and 
 agitator of sedition, — or else take their bribe from whatever 
 hand may " legerdemain" the largest, and care not who or what 
 represents them in Parliament. No wonder, then, that voters 
 so base, — so dead to every instinct of honesty and patriotism, — 
 should be indifferent to the election of Chuistian Legislators i 
 or to go farther, should be utterly at a loss to estimate the 
 dignity, the strength and glory, accrueing to a country from 
 Christian B-ulers, Christian ^linisters of State, Christian Magis- 
 trates, or what we now so deplorably need. Christian and 
 TRULY Protestant Statesmen. The Percivals and Har- 
 rowbys of other days are forgotten or despised ; and the 
 *' Church of England," the constitutional Christianizing medium 
 of the country, — (no longer recognized as the national channel 
 of sound Gospel truth, equally removed from Popery and 
 Puritanism, from Calvinism and Canon Law,) is either distrusted, 
 hated and decried; or, on the other hand, plundered and 
 mutilated, discountenanced or studiously kept in ferment and 
 crippled by most questionable, if not schismatical prefer- 
 ment. Who, then, can be surprised, that, as we set aside or 
 forsake God, He should forsake us ; that, as we spurn or obscure 
 the Light vouchsafed to us in the purest and most Catholic of 
 Christian ChurcheSj-^-our glorious " Candlestick " should be 
 removed ; or, that, in the nation's urgent need of pilots, we 
 
21 
 
 cau liud scarcely a man to summon to the helm. And, now, 
 without dwelling I'lu-ther on the subject, who shall say whether, 
 as a people, distinguished amongst the nations for an exalted 
 mission of Protestant enlightenment, religious example and 
 Chiistian freedom and eivilization, we have not, at length, by 
 our own perverseness, — our own factions and faithlessness, 
 forfeited our privileges and accelerated our downfall ? 
 
 I am quite aware, that many other disastrous signs of the 
 times in which we live, ought to have been here adduced ; and 
 that many of those which I have enumerated, ^viU, by some, be 
 ignored, and by others be veiy reluctantly admitted. Again, I 
 must allow, that I have omitted specially to insert some of the 
 most terrific, perhaps, at present of all the tokens of our national 
 i-uin, I mean the fatally short-sighted state-craft, which, under 
 the plea of " libei'aUti/,'' " enlarged views " and wondrous 
 cosmopolitism, would paralyze our world-wide privilege in the 
 marine carrying trade, and through it defeat the ready equipment 
 on an emergence of our Navy ; which would beggar our Colonies, 
 disparage and impoverish our Agriculture, — while it disunites 
 and exasperates the two leading classes in the community, and 
 dries up the veiy springs of our Manufacturing, Commercial and 
 Industrial prosperity by what it mendaciously presumes to call 
 '^Free-Trade.'' This has been, indeed, a most mischievous 
 affectation of far-sighted policy, which the more wide-awake 
 world, it was fondly hoped, would, in some soft hour of self- 
 denying hallucination, nobly imitate ! Such has been, to say the 
 best of it, what we shall too soon find it. 
 The suicidal generosity 
 Of a lopsided reciprocity ! 
 Another alarming symptom, to which I have barely alluded, and 
 which, if not a sure " precursor of a dreadful thunder-clap," has 
 often filled my mind of late with great anxiety, is the rapid 
 spread of Calvinism, the great tenet of Dissent, in the truly 
 Scriptural Church of this country. I say " Calvinism,'' because, 
 after all, disown it or disguise it, as men may, it is, in fact. 
 
22 
 
 nothing more nor less than the flattering presumption of '' personal 
 election " and " indefectible grace ;" the real, though, perhaps, 
 not always avowed, " Regeneration " of too many. Against this 
 fascinating delusion, I need not say, that all argument is, and 
 ever will be, a mere waste of words. And this is the more 
 frightful, because it is the very sectarian error, which at this 
 moment so divides and embroils the Clergy of the Church of 
 England ; — and which indeed, it is said, has driven some even 
 sound Churchmen in indignation- at the result of a late trial, from 
 her free and fertile pastures into the parched and pestilential 
 wastes of Popery. One cause of this dangerous aberration from 
 the Liturgy, Articles and Eitual of the Church, was the long 
 period during which Mr. Simeon was the great Gamaliel of the 
 Cambridge students. This must have borne its fruits amongst 
 numbers ; — ^^vhile it is evident that the extensive dissemination 
 of Calvinistic sermons and writings, and particularly of " Scott's 
 Bible " amongst Clergy and Laity, has conspired with the many 
 bright examples of unquestionable zeal and piety in the followers 
 and preachers of that doctrine, to bring back upon the land the 
 dismal tenets and fierce fanaticism of "Puritanism." 
 
 Thus, then, I have enumerated a few out of the many inauspi- 
 cious signs of the times, which frequently and powerfully excite 
 my own apprehensions. To some, however, who can scarcely 
 be expected to coincide in all that I have said, or who may not 
 attach the same importance with myself to the prognostics of 
 national danger and decline, which I have thus adduced, my 
 scanty catalogue may serve to suggest other unpromising symp- 
 toms of equal, if not of greater, urgency in their estimation. At 
 all events, my views of our present Social and Political state may, 
 I trust, fairly be sub mitted to the calm consideration of all who 
 scorn to sacrifice patriotism to party, — who cling with reverence 
 to our old and solid foundations, and in answer to the revolutionary 
 cry of "Progress !" — effectually interpose their no less sacred than 
 solemn precaution — " Quieta ne movete" — "Let well alone." 
 
 SEPTUAGENARIUS. 
 
/3 
 
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