guided her hitherto, did not fail her now.-Hardly venturing to breathe lest she should betray herself, she emerged from her hiding-place tripped down the cellar steps, and watching her opportunity, while the rascals' faces were turned from her, she swung the door back upon them, with such force, that it extinguished their candle, and before they could recover their amazement, she locked it, double locked it, rushed through the ale-cellar, locked and double locked that door, then hastened to pile up against it every heavy article of furniture she could drag to the spot, and lastly, ran to the rope which was attached to the alarm-bell at the top of the house, and continued ringing it till she felt her knees sinking under her, and she fell to the ground fainting.

CHAPTER XI.

Great Cry and little Wool.

"For Rhetoric, he could not ope

His mouth, but out there flew a trope;
And when he happened to break off
I' th' middle of his speech, or cough,
H' had hard words ready to shew why,
And tell what rules he did it by.
Else when with greatest art he spoke

You'd think he talk'd like other folk....

But when he pleas'd to shew't, his speech
In loftiness of sound was rich,

A Babylonish dialect,

Which learned pedants much affect."

BUTLER.

THE sentiment which Shakspear has put into the mouth of Trinculo, and which has been already quoted, that the English are a people who "when they will not give a doit to a lame beggar, will lay out ten to see a dead Indian," is certainly anything but disproved by our modern habits. Much of the

WARDEN OF BERKINGHOLT.

249

good that is done, would not (it is to be feared) be accomplished without the Pharisaical machinery of charity-balls, bazaars," and all their trumpery," for religion is at so low an ebb among us, that (in spite of noble occasional exceptions) we are unwilling to offer unto God simply, and unreservedly, and without a prospect of any immediate return. Much as we hear about faith, the fruits of it, in this respect at least, are by no means easy to be perceived. People cannot day out money in a righteous cause, without expecting to receive, at least, the interest of their capital. They must have their quid pro quo, in pleasure or excitement.

It is probably owing to this sensual and faithless spirit, which has been yielded to, instead of reprobated by those whose office gave them authority to speak on the subject, that all our so-called religious Societies have adopted the common machinery of political agitation, travelling orators, and public platforms, -as the easiest and most effectual means of filling their treasuries. And, as one unworthy step is pretty sure to lead to another, we find several of these Societies forgetting their position and their duties, and proportioning their arrogance to their subscription list.

And such is likely to be the case, till we return to the ancient system, and make the Church the

receiver, and the Bishops the dispensers of the people's bounty. Meanwhile, the visible tendency of our great Societies is towards dissent; in several, schism is triumphant, and on the rest it is making its aggressions with more or less present success, but still with the same final prospect of victory.

How any churchman,-above all, how any clergyman of the Church of England, can allow himself to contribute to institutions which find favour in the eyes of dissent; how he can persuade himself that it is no discredit to be seen on the same platform with schismatic teachers; on what principles he ventures to go, (not merely unbidden, but in opposition to the known wishes of a brother clergyman,) and either preside at, or attend meetings of this description in a parish not under his charge, is quite inconceivable : but it is to be hoped that the generation which succeeds us, will be better instructed in Church principles than we have been, and will learn to see in its true light the immeasurable guilt of the sin of schism.*

* It is to be hoped that those "wandering stars," the travelling, speech-making orators, who, neglecting their own flocks, are in the habit of intruding into their clerical neighbours' parishes, and holding meetings against their consent, will reflect upon the following passage, in a recent charge, though it is to be feared that Episcopal authority has not much weight with them, as such, except when they happen to agree with it. "With respect to the various associations instituted for religious objects, I would venture to make one further suggestion; that you admit into your pulpits not any missionary-no,

Against the objects of the Society, which, upon the evening so often alluded to, held its meeting at Berkingholt, there is nothing to be excepted. The bare dissemination of the Bible, indeed, in any given country, without a contemporaneous institution of a Christian ministry to preach, catechize, and administer

not any one. I say into your pulpits. I do not say that you are not to invite them to have meetings with you for suitabte objects. But preach for those objects yourselves, or obtain the assistance of your neighbouring Clergy. Do not encourage strangcrs going through the churches extolling and exaggerating with all the arts of rhetoric, as strangers sent for the purpose can hardly fail to do, the claims of the particular societies they advocate. It is a disturbance of the parochial system. It turns God's house into a hall of declamation, and pampers a diseased appetite for that kind of instruction which is neither milk nor strong meat, but a kind of mawkish sentiment, from which no genuine, healthy growth of Christian charity had ever yet been produced. Again, I would earnestly press upon you the duty of not interfering one with another with respect of those societies. If any of you should judge any of these societies especially worthy of his support, let him give that support in his own parish, or in the parish of any neighbouring Clergyman who may wish his assistance. But I conjure you not to intrude yourselves into a parish unbidden, much less contrary to the expressed and acknowledged opinion of its proper pastor. Do not intrude unbidden, even at meetings for religious objects, into the parish of another Minister. You may be quite sure you will do incalculably more evil by weakening the influence of a brother Minister over his flock (and you will weaken it, if you successfully support what he is known to oppose) than you can do good by forwarding the cause of any of those societies. Besides, the evil is certain; the good, at the best, must be doubtful; and remember what the Apostle has said of those who do evil that good may come."-Bishop of Exeter's Charge, 1842, (as reported in the Newspapers.)