darkness that spreads over the streets and alleys of our large towns.
The parish of Lambeth, a few years since, contained not more than one
church and three or four small proprietary chapels, while dissenting
chapels of every denomination were still more scantily found there; yet
the inhabitants of the parish amounted at that time to upwards of
50,000. Were the parish church, and the chapels of the Establishment
existing there, an _impediment_ to the spread of the Gospel among that
mass of people? Who shall dare to say so? But if any one, in the face of
the fact which has just been stated, and in opposition to authentic
reports to the same effect from various other quarters, should still
contend, that a voluntary system is sufficient for the spread and
maintenance of religion, we would ask, what kind of religion? wherein
would it differ, among the many, from deplorable fanaticism?

For the preservation of the Church Establishment, all men, whether they
belong to it or not, could they perceive their true interest, would be
strenuous: but how inadequate are its provisions for the needs of the
country! and how much is it to be regretted that, while its zealous
friends yield to alarms on account of the hostility of Dissent, they
should so much overrate the danger to be apprehended from that quarter,
and almost overlook the fact that hundreds of thousands of our
fellow-countrymen, though formally and nominally of the Church of
England, never enter her places of worship, neither have they
communication with her ministers! This deplorable state of things was
partly produced by a decay of zeal among the rich and influential, and
partly by a want of due expansive power in the constitution of the
Establishment as regulated by law. Private benefactors, in their efforts
to build and endow churches, have been frustrated, or too much impeded
by legal obstacles: these, where they are unreasonable or unfitted for
the times, ought to be removed; and, keeping clear of intolerance and
injustice, means should be used to render the presence and powers of
the Church commensurate with the wants of a shifting and
still-increasing population.

This cannot be effected, unless the English Government vindicate the
truth, that, as her Church exists for the benefit of all (though not in
equal degree), whether of her communion or not, all should be made to
contribute to its support. If this ground be abandoned, cause will be
given to fear that a m