IV. "If it be Chance; or if it be according To the old text, still better; lest it should Know very clearly-or at least lie still." P. 49. Those curious readers who wish to explore still further, may learn the following undisputed truths; that England is famishing, that the Duke of Wellington loves potatoes, that Emperors fall with oats, that worlds pup, that men are maggots, that "The eye In love drinks all life's fountains, save tears, dry;" P. 19. that thought clings" like a whelp to its teat," that Lord Byron's ancestors received eight-and forty manors from William the Conqueror, that "the world is only one attorney;" and other well-expressed facts, whose importance will be duly appreciated. The puzzling want of connection in the reflective passages, is thus candidly accounted for by Lord Byron himself: "The time is out of joint,'-and so am I; I ne'er decide what I shall say, and this I call I never know the word which will come next." P. 13. How are the mighty fallen! We can hardly suppose that the author of Childe Harold and Sardanapulus has grown incurably dull; or that, contrary to the case of the Duke of Wellington, whom he tries to prove an elderly man and a young hero, Lord Byron himself is become superannuated in intellect, though young in years. Rather let us take him at his word, and supposing, as he asserts in p. 26, "That he has more than one muse at a pinch," transfer the stigma to that non-descript goddess, who seems peculiarly to have presided over the composition of Don Juan. In the first canto we saw ber elegant, highly talented, and graceful, and lamented her deflection from virtue. We can trace her subsequently through each stage of deterioration, till we find her a camp-follower at Ismail, still possessing allurements of a coarse and sensual sort, and though thoroughly depraved, full of anecdote and adventurous spirit In the present three cantos we behold her a reckless and desperate outcast from society, smarting under the sense of universal neglect, and venting it in the roar of scurrilous defiance against every one who comes in her way: her conversation a mixture of metaphysical scraps picked up in the course of her former education, with broader slang, and more unblushing indecency, than she had as yet ventured upon. Such is the history of the rise and progress, the decline and fall, of the tenth, or Juanic muse. # Present State of Religion, and particularly of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. ART. XIV. An Introductory Address, on Occasion of the Opening of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. By John Henry Hobart, D.D. Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the State of New York. Pp. 40. New York. ART. XV. The Constitution, Act of Incorporation, and Statutes of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Pp. 20. New York. AT. XVI. A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, from the Bishops of the same. Pp. 20. New York. 1823. ART. XVII. Journals of the Proceedings of the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Pp. 116. New York. WE are inclined to believe, from the sources of information to which we have had access, that the state of religion in the United States of America is not so unpromising as has been sometimes supposed. The old settled parts of the Union, and particularly the Eastern and Middle States, are in general well furnished with places of worship, in which service is regularly performed by the ministers of the various religious denominations to which they belong. In some places the congregations possess property; but in general the clergy are supported by the rents of pews and the subscriptions of the people. The new settlements, which comprise a considerable portion of the country, are not so well furnished with the means of public worship and religious instruction. Missionary societies are, however, organized, who send out missionaries to these destitute settlements; and the people, where they have neither a minister nor a place of worship, meet on Sundays in school-houses, and some approved person among them offers social prayer, and reads a sermon. These persons are styled in the Episcopal Church, Lay-Readers, who, when there is no minister, read such parts of the Liturgy as are not strictly appropriated to the clerical office. The Protestant Episcopalians in the United States are not near so numerous as the Congregationalists or Independents, who constitute the great bulk of the population of the Eastern States, and the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and the Methodists. The original settlers of New England, which has been the hive that has peopled, in a great measure, the new regions of the Western world, were Puritans. The Episcopal Church commenced in the then colony of Connecticut, only about the middle of the last century, and since has been gradually extending itself, and is now very re spectable in that state. The close of the war, however, which led to American Independence, found the Episcopal Church in the United States deprived almost entirely of its clergy; who being loyalists, had generally left the country, It had to contend with various other difficulties of the most serious description. From this state of depression it is emerging, and the increase of its members is greater in some places than could reasonably be expected. It is, we be lieve, most numerous and influential in the State of New York; one fourth of the whole number of clergy in the United States being in that diocese, and the number having doubled within twelve or fifteen years. We are pleased to find that besides the diocesan missionary societies, a General Missionary Society is organized, the especial object of which is to provide for the wants of the newly settled districts in the United States. It is with no little pride and gratification that we thus perceive the Protestant Episcopal Church in that country, a church which gratefully acknowledges, in the Preface to her Liturgy, that she is "indebted to the Church of England for her first foundation, and for a long continuance of nursing care and protection;" and from whom she has not essentially departed, further than local circumstances required, rising in importance and respectability, both as to the number and to the principles and character of her clergy and members. The journal of the proceedings of a convention of her bishops, clergy, and laity, and several documents relative to the General Theological Seminary for the Education of Candidates for Orders, which she has established, and which now lie before us, afford striking evidence of this fact. At the close of what is called in America, "The War of Independence," the Episcopal Church, as has been observed, was almost extinct. The numbers of the Clergy are now as follows:-Eastern Diocese, consisting of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont-One bishop, forty clergymen. Connecticut-One bishop, forty-six clergymen. New York-One bishop, ninety-two clergymen. New Jersey-One bishop, thirteen clergymen. PennsylvaniaOne bishop, thirty-six clergymen. Maryland-One bishop, forty-four clergymen. Delaware-Three clergymen. Virginia-One bishop, thirty-three clergymen. North Carolina -One bishop, eight clergymen. South Carolina-One bishop, twenty-seven clergymen. Ohio-One bishop, seven clergymen. Georgia-Four clergymen. Total-363. In each state or diocese there is a convention meeting annually, consisting of the bishop, of the clergy, and of laydelegates from the congregations. In this convention the bishop presides, and delivers annually an Address on the state of the Church. A Charge is a distinct act, and is considered as particularly directed to the clergy on their duties, or on some important points of doctrine. These diocesan conventions, acting under the authority of the bishops, make such regulations as local circumstances require. But the Church at large is governed by a General Convention meeting triennially, consisting of the bishops, who sit and vote as one house; and the clerical and lay deputies from the diocesan conventions, who meet and vote as another. A concurrent vote is necessary to every act of the convention; and in the house of clerical and lay-deputies, whenever demanded by the clerical or lay-representation from any state, the clergy and laity vote separately, and a concurrent vote is necessary to constitute a vote of that house. Thus the bishops, the clergy, and the laity of the Church, have a negative on one another, agreeably to the principle on which HOOKER defends the constitution of the Church of England; in uniting the King and Parliament in ecclesiastical legislation with the Bishops and Clergy in convocation. This General Convention met in May last; and we observe in their Journals a Report on the State of the Church, from which we make the following extracts. "Vermont. "There has been a gradual and steady advancement of the Church in this State, since the last meeting of the Triennial Convention. By a late decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, a large amount of landed property is expected to come into the possession of the Church, which will afford a permanent revenue for the support of the Clergy, for which the gratitude of Episcopalians is due to that venerable Society, which was the first in those exertions for the promotion of Christianity, that so peculiarly distinguish the present period, which has done, and is still doing, so much for extending the influence of pure and undefiled religion, on this and on the other continent-the Society in England for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts." "Massachusetts. "The Church in this Diocese, may justly be represented as flourishing, if we take into view the difficulties and trials which it has had to encounter. Notwithstanding the political and religious prejudices which operated here with peculiar hostility, there were 17 churches founded in and 1774. Durine Massachusetts proper, between the years 1679 and 1774. During the Revolution two clergymen only continued the exercise of their public ministrations ; yet of the 17 thus founded, 15 have been preserved to this day, through evil report and good report; and though most of them are small, they are still united and striving together for the faith of the Gospel." "The number of Clergy in Massachusetts is 20, of whom three only are in Deacon's orders." 5. Rhode Island.. "No material change has taken place in the Church of Rhode Island during the last three years. The several congregations are in a state of continued prosperity." "Connecticut. "The state of the Church in the Diocese of Connecticut has been steadily improving since the last Triennial Report; and now generally appears under prosperous circumstances. In some instances, the increase of communicants has been altogether unprecedented; and in every parish, where the ministrations of the word and ordi nances are regularly enjoyed, the congregations are advancing in number, zeal, and respectability." "The Clergy of the Diocese consist at present of the Bishop, forty Presbyters, and four Deacons." "The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, having determined to devote its receipts for the present to the support of missioners within the Diocese, has been enabled, by the annual collections in the several parishes, and by the aid of auxiliary societies established in many of them, to employ two or three active missionaries, whose labours have been already crowned with the most flattering success.' "Sunday schools are generally established throughout the Diocese; and by the adoption of measures for pursuing a systematic course of instruction, are becoming highly beneficial to the interests of the Church." “A memorial is now before the State Legislature, praying for the charter of a college, to be located reither in Hartford, Middle town, or New-Haven, and to be under the patronage and direction of Episcopalians." VOL. XX. NOV. 1823. Non |