Henry.-How do the other religious bodies in Ireland, and especially the Establishment, stand affected to this question?

Mr. Fairfield. The Establishment, as may be expected, are bestirring themselves to defend their position to the utmost. In the last week of the same month in which the Catholic Bishops propounded their resolutions, a meeting was held at Hillsborough, in Ulster, to protest against the disendowment of the Establishment. At this place a monster meeting for the same end had been held a generation ago, attended by nearly 100,000 persons. In the present case, a similar demonstration was hoped for, but it proved "an ignominious failure." Other leaders of the toppling Church are more wisely and mercifully preparing her for her coming fall. Lord Dufferin, at the Social Science. Congress in Belfast, the Dean of Cork, at Salisbury, and the Bishop of Down and Connor, in a late charge, are a few noted men who are acting this good and patriotic part. The last-named prelate said: "Be the future of the Irish Church what it may, I have no fear for her continuing and increasing vitality and power. Mindful of her mission, her abiding strength in Christ her head, her former victories over sin and schism, both at home and abroad, she will achieve in all her reverses new triumphs, by the self-denying labours of her devoted sons. Though stripped of her temporal wealth, the Irish Church, by the historical recollection of her ancient lineage, by the purity of her doctrine, by her Scriptural simplicity, will ever be, amidst error, heresy, or indifference, a shining witness to the truth; and the self-same voice which fortified and upheld the

infant church of old will be her stay and confidence in her darkest hours and her severest trials." Of the other religious bodies, the Irish Congregationalists have already given forth a true and certain sound. But they and the other minor sections are small compared with the Presbyterians, whose action is of course fettered by their reception of the Regium Donum. But they, too, give signs of rapid advance. Their nobler spirits are coming increasingly to see the false character of their position. The Rev. Dr. M'Cosh, in particular, a professor in the Belfast College, and one of their most eminent men, asks: "Are we to endow all sects in Ireland, or endow none?" And to this he replies: "It is the duty of Protestants to declare unequivocally that they would rather have no sect endowed than have all." This is also the dominant sentiment in the Free Church of Scotland. As for the Dissenters proper throughout the United Kingdom, their course. is clear. They will take--and are taking their firm and uncompromising stand on Voluntaryism as the one sound principle and political motto for all. On this sure ground, they will help the Roman Catholics to get that Irish Establishment disendowed, which is the most offensive of all symbols of conquest, and which, as Mr. Bright said, "has made Catholicism in Ireland not only a faith, but a patriotism." What to do with these ancient ecclesiastical revenues is a question that can easily be determined when the fit time comes. In the meantime, what the Irish catholics want and demand is religious equality, and to this they are entitled. In this they will find themselves backed by the sympathy and support of all the Dissenters of England

and Scotland. But re-endow the Irish Church, and superadd to it a Catholic Establishment? Never! One such evil has been enough for Ireland, without making two.*

*The Times unwittingly argues well for voluntaryism in Ireland, while professedly opposing it. It says:-" An entirely disendowed Protestant Church, necessarily dependent on the doctrinal zeal and political ardour of its flocks, will become more Protestant, more controversial and bellicose, more bitter to everybody and everything outside itself, and more what is called a "Mission in Ireland. On the other hand, it will have to do its duty, and give the subscribing ministers their money's worth in spiritual ministrations—a fair exchange, for which there is not much security in a well-endowed establishment." (January 11, 1868.) The real source of bitterness is a State-Endowed Church-as all experience shows. But these and the like epithets the Times here uses, after the fashion of churchmen, as synonyms of that voluntary earnestness and zeal which he candidly owns it is vain to look for in a "well-endowed establishment." Most truly does he own that no such establishment can have any power as a "Mission in Ireland." But this, all must see, is its express condemnation.

CONVERSATION IX.

VOLUNTARYISM AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE BRITISH COLONIES, AND IN AMERICA-CONCLUSION.

VOLUNTARYISM IN THE COLONIES.

Henry.-How is religion provided for in the colo

nies?

Mr. Fairfield.-As most other interests are, Henry -by individual energy and enterprize. Remains there are of State-Churchism, particularly in our older settlements; but these settlements, like the old American colonies that are now no longer ours, are shaking them off. To begin with Canada, the Clergy Reserves there were secularized in 1854, and now all sects are about equal in the eye of the law. Education, too, prospers. Even ten years ago, there were more than 3,000 schools, besides higher seminaries, which are very much under local management. In the new world, and with self-government, there is no risk of Canada falling behind in the race of religious liberty, especially considering the new era of self-government on which it is entering under the Canadian Confederation.

Edward. What may be the extent of these Confederate provinces ?

Mr. Fairfield. They embrace the two Canadas, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince

Edward's Island. The Rev. Dr. Hamilton, of Montreal, thus presents their extent in a comparative point of view:-Great Britain and Ireland, he said, contains 120,000 square miles, Italy 100,000, and France 212,000 square miles. British North America, not including Vancouver's Island, Hudson's Bay Territory, or British Columbia, which might all be yet included in the Confederation, consists of 420,000 square miles, being rather more than four times as large as Italy, twice as large as France, and between three and four times as large as Great Britain and Ireland. Again, in reference to population, the five British North American provinces contain four millions-a greater population than is possessed by any one of the independent sovereignties of Portugal, Holland, Denmark, or Greece. The commercial progress of the Provinces is in a still more striking proportion.

Charles. It is to be hoped their religious advancement is not left far behind.

Mr. Fairfield. This naturally follows in the wake of general progress. In Lower Canada, the Church of Rome reigns supreme-an establishment, of course, inherited from France. The wealth of the nunneries is said to be enormous. The authority above cited thus summarises the result of religious effort in those vast and rapidly-developing regions :-The Romish clergy in all Canada, besides friars and nuns, numbered 900; the Protestant Episcopal clergy in the two Canadas numbered 500; the Presbyterians of different bodies, 450; the Congregational or Independent Churches, 70; Methodists of all kinds, 1,000; Baptists, 240; and all others, 60. The entire number of ministers and priests