sents a resolution declaring that "by their
absence, they had openly declared their infidelity to their professions
of theological faith, and had thus confessed the weakness and folly of
their arrogant assumptions, and proved that they loved popular favour
more than common good; and they are therefore moral cowards, pharisees
of this nineteenth century, seeking to enslave more and more the mind of
man," &c. Another orator then proposes a resolution, to the effect that
the spirit and genius of Bible religion is not a system of salvation
from sin and its effects, but a system of damnation into sin and its
effects; that it is the friend of moral and spiritual slavery, and
therefore "the foe of human mental and spiritual liberty." Subsequently
a strong-minded woman, called Mrs. Rose, appeared on the platform amid
considerable uproar, followed by extinguishing the gas and singing
songs. After a severe struggle, the lady managed to express her
sentiments in these mild and Christian terms:--"The Church is upon your
neck. Do you want to be free? Then trample the Church, the priest, and
the Bible under your feet."--The last day's proceeding closed by a row
in the gallery, owing to a fight, in which a dirk had been drawn; and
then the Convention adjourned till the following year.

The reader must not imagine that I state this as an indication of the
tone of religious feeling in the New England States,--far from it; but
it appears to me a fact worth noticing, that a Convention of such a
nature and magnitude, and considered of sufficient importance to employ
the special reporter of a leading journal of New York, should by any
possibility assemble for days and days together, and give vent to such
blasphemous sentiments among a people so liberally educated and so amply
supplied with means of religious instruction. I only hope that the
infidelity of the whole Republic was gathered into that one assembly,
and that having met in so uncongenial an atmosphere, they all returned
to their homes impregnated with some of the purer atmosphere of the
great majority of the people.

The subject of Education naturally follows the Church; but, on this
point, any attempt at accuracy is hopeless. Whether it be from the
variety of school systems in the different States, or from some innate
defect in the measures taken to obtain information, I cannot pretend to
say; but the discrepancies between the statements made are so great,
that I can only preten