used by the
Laity to the clergyman when _they_ dismiss _him_.] There have been many
attempts to remedy this evil, in the dense population of cities, by
setting up a still more voluntary system, called `free churches,' in
which the pews are not rented, but free to all. But they are uniformly
_failures_.

Two other remarks made by this author are equally correct; first, that
the voluntary system tends to the multiplication of sects without end;
and next, that the voluntary system is a mendicant system, and involves
one of the worst features of the church of Rome, which is, that it tends
to the production of pious frauds. But I have already, in support of my
arguments, quoted so much from this book that I must refer the reader to
the work itself.

At present, Massachusetts, and the smaller Eastern States, are the
strong-hold of religion and morality; as you proceed from them farther
south or west, so does the influence of the clergy decrease, until it is
totally lost in the wild States of Missouri and Arkansas. With the
exception of certain cases to be found in Western Virginia, Kentucky,
and Ohio, the whole of the States to the westward of the Alleghany
Mountains, comprising more than two-thirds of America, may be said to be
either in a state of neglect and darkness, or professing the Catholic
religion.

Although Virginia is a slave state, I think there is more religion there
than in some of the more northern free states; but it must be
recollected that Virginia has been long settled, and the non-_predial_
state of the slaves is not attended with demoralising effects; and I may
here observe that the _black_ population of American is decidedly the
most religious, and sets an example to the white, particularly in the
free states.

[Mr Reid, in his Tour, describes a visit which he paid to a black
church in Kentucky:--

"By the laws of the state, no coloured persons are permitted to assemble
for worship, unless a white person be present and preside.

"One of the black preachers, addressing me as their `strange master,'
begged that I would take charge of the service. I declined doing so.
He gave out Dr Watts' beautiful psalm, `Shew pity, Lord, oh! Lord
forgive.' They all rose immediately. They had no books, for they could
not read; but it was printed on their memory, and they sung it off with
freedom and feeling.

"The senior black, who was a preacher among them, then offered prayer
and preached; his prayer w