of good and sound, and that it is only shops are gravely told, that so much good which has been done by the clerical possessor effect any interfe revenues, to the level of that to which any similar number of lay proprie tors may lay claim as their contri bution to the But the objection to church property takes another forch The Bi VOL. XXXI. NO.CXC. N tenance of the prelates' incomes precisely at their present amount; and I can, perhaps, recognise a certain advantage as likely to accrue from a more perfect equalisation of their preferments. But I cannot say, that this advantage would not be too dearly purchased by the admission of a principle which must make all Church property precarious. And it is not a slight improvement in the theory of our establishment, which should reconcile any of its sincere well-wishers to a project which would render its possession insecure. Let our establishment be rendered as efficient as it is possible to be, and we will hear no more, at least in the shape of objection, of the wealth of one class of its clergy, and the poverty of another. When a man has been thirty or forty years before the public in his professional capacity, his character must be pretty well known; and if any taint of avarice belong to him, he should be deemed unfit for the office of Bishop. If, on the contrary, he should have, for such a period, exhibited those virtues which mark him as a follow er of his Divine Master; if his affections have been so long "set on things above, not on things of the earth," it is but reasonable to presume that the same simplicity and singleness of heart will attend him in a higher station. To such a man, therefore, more ample funds will only be more ample means of doing good; and although he may not keep so many dogs or horses as this lord, or that squire, yet will his expenditure not be less creditable to himself, or less beneficial to his fellow creatures. sion; but it would be necessary, for many reasons, to keep him in perpetual remembrance of his sacred obligation. Every appointment which he made should take place in public. It should be done in the sight of God, and of his congregation. Nothing should be wanting which could impress both upon himself and the beholders that he was about to perform a solemn religious act, upon which might depend the spiritual wellbeing of thousands. Can it be supposed, that, in such a case, he would be as accessible to carnal, corrupting, or presumptuous solicitations, as many of the Bishops are at present? Assuredly he would not. He would be placed under circumstances in which "all that was carnal would die in him, and all things belonging to the spirit would live and grow in him." Every project of family aggrandisement would be repressed, when he called upon the congregation to join with him in prayer, " that the Lord of the harvest might send forth labourers into the harvest." He could not think, in such a moment, of making merchandise of the souls of men: and rare, indeed, would be the appointment which would cause scandal to religion. Thus, by providing good men for the higher offices, we would cause that good men in the lower offices should never be, for any length of time, unprovided. This, surely, will be admitted to be a better mode of remedying an evil which every one must acknowledge and deplore, than a regulation which, by raising the stipends of curates, would have a tendency to banish useful labourers from the Church, and this, by an interference with vested rights which must bring all ecclesiastical property into danger. The State, my Lord, cannot at present too jealously guard against every project which bears even asemblance of spoliation. These projects may begin with the Church, but, depend upon it, they cannot end there. If possessions, the mostancient, the most sacred, and the most im prescriptible, are invaded, upon what principle can any other species of property be deemed secure? If the clergy, from usufructuary propriemere stipendiaries; and if their property is to be commuted for salaries to be determined by a "quantum If such and such only were appointed Bishops, we would hear but few complaints of the poverty of the inferior clergy; for they would all be promoted according to their worth and services. I am against any regulation which should prescribe that a certain standing-entitled a clergyman to promotion. By such a rule no distinction would be made between the drones and the bees. It might, indeed, be very well to provide, that a clergyman should be some years in the ministry before he was entitled to become a rector. Un-tors, are degraded to the class of der the eye of a vigilant and discriminating Bishop, however, all would go on well even without any such provi meruit" consideration of the services they perform, these services being estimated by those who despise their office and character, we may easily conceive the species of estimation in which the ministers of religion will be held. And when we consider, that, by such a course, the populace will have got but a taste of plunder, what is to prevent the appetite which shall be thus excited from gratifying itself at the expense of the possession of the hereditary proprietors, whose titles cannot be considered better than those which they have themselves contributed to destroy, and who, when they thus, in their turn, become the victims of popular caprice, can scarcely be said to suffer any thing more than the awards of evenhanded justice? But I have already detained your Lordship too long, and will conclude for the present by assuring you, that if I did not feel much respect for your talents, and was not led to believe, by many of your acts and expressions, that you are a sincere well-wisher of our venerable Church, I never would have so far trespass ed upon your attention. TOM CRINGLE'S LOG.* THE only other midshipman on board the cutter beside young Walcolm, whose miserable death we had witnessed, was a slight delicate little fellow, about fourteen years old, of the name of Duncan; he was the smallest boy of his age I ever saw, and had been badly hurt in repelling the attack of the pirate. His wound was a lacerated puncture in the left shoulder from a boarding-pike, but it appeared to be healing kindly, and for some days we thought he was doing well. However, about five o'clock in the afternoon, before we made Jamaica, the surgeon accosted Mr Douglas as we were walking the deck together. "I fear little Duncan is going to slip through my fingers after all, sir." -" No! I thought he had been better."" So he was till about noon, when a twitching of the muscles came on, which I fear betokens lock jaw; he wavers, too, now and then, a bad sign of itself where there is a fretting wound." We went below, where, notwithstanding the wind-sail that was let down close to where his hammock was slung, the heat of the small vessel was suffocating. The large coarse tallow candle in the purser's lantern, that hung beside his shoulder, around whiunge loathsome cockroaches fluttered like moths in a summer evening, filled the be tween decks with and with smoke a rancid oily smell, while it ran down and melted like fat before a fire. It cast sickly gleam on the pale face of the SCRUTATOR. brown-haired, girlish-looking lad, as he lay in his narrow hammock. When we entered, an old quarter-master was rubbing his legs, which were jerking about like the limbs of a galvinized frog, while two of the boys held his arms, also violently convulsed. The poor little fellow was cry ing and sobbing most piteously, but made a strong effort to compose himself and "be a man" when he saw us." This is so good of you, Mr Cringle! you will take charge of my letter to my sister, I know you will?-I say, Anson," to the quarter-master, "do lift me up a little till I try and finish it. It will be a sore heart to poor Sarah; she has no mother now, nor father, and aunt is not over kind," and again he wept bitterly. "Confound this jumping hand, it won't keep steady, all I can do. - I say, Doctor, I sha'n't die this time, shall I?"- "I hope not, my fine little fellow."-"I don't think I shall; I shall live to be a man yet, in spite of that bloody Bucaneer's pike, I know I shall." God help me, the death rattle was already and the flame was in his throat, in the flickering in socket; even as he spoke, the muscles of his neck stiffened to such a degree that I thought he was choked, violence of the convulsion quickly subsided, am done for, Doctor!" he could no longer open his mouth, "I feel it now! God Almighty but spoke through his clenched teeth receive my soul, and protect poor sister!" The arch-enemy was indeed lefon November last. advancing to the final struggle, for he now gave a sudden and sharp cry, and stretched out his legs and arms, which instantly became as rigid as marble, and in his agony he turned his face to the side I stood on, but he was no longer sensible." "Sister," he said with difficulty-"Don't let them throw me overboard; there are sharks here."" Land on the leebow,"-sung out the man at the masthead. The common life sound would not have moved any of us in the routine of duty, but bursting in, under such circumstances, it made us all start, as if it had been something unusual; the dying midshipman heard it, and said calmly Land, I will never see it. But how blue all your lips look. - It is cold, piercing cold, and dark, dark." Something seemed to rise in his throat, his features sharpened "still more, and he tried to gasp, but his clenched teeth prevented him he was gone. I went on deck with a heavy heart, and, on looking in the direction indicated, I beheld the towering Blue Mountain peak rising high above the horizon, even at the distance of fifty miles, with its outline clear and distinct against the splendid western sky, now gloriously illumined by the light of the set sun. We stood on under easy sail for the night, and next morning when the day broke, we were off the east end of the magnificent Island of Jamaica. The stupendous peak now appeared to rise close aboard of us, with a large solitary star sparkling on his forehead, and reared his forest-crowned summit high into the cold blue sky, impending over us in frowning magnificence, while the long dark range of the Blue Mountains, with their outlines hard and clear in the grey light, sloped away on each side of him as if they had been the Giant's shoulders. Great masses of white mist hung on their sides about half way down, but all the valleys and coast as yet slept in the darkness. We could see that the land-wind was blowing strong in shore, from the darker colour of the water, and the speed with which the coasters, only distinguishable by their white sails, slid along; while astern of us, out at sea, yet within a cable's length, for we had only shot beyond its influence, the prevailing trade-wind blew a smart breeze, coming up strong to a defined line, beyond which and be. tween it, and the influence of the land-wind, there was a belt of dull lead-coloured sea, about half a mile broad, with a long heavy ground. swell rolling, but smooth as glass, and without even a ripple on the surface, in the midst of which we lay dead becalmed. 1,9ээлл. у пі The heavy dew was shaken in large drops out of the wet flapping sails, against which the reef points pattered like hail as the vessel rolled. The decks were wet and slippery, and our jackets saturated with moisture; but we enjoyed the luxury of cold to a degree that made the sea water when dashed about the decks, as they were being holystoned, appear absolutely warm. Presently all nature awoke in its freshness so suddenly, that it looked like a change of scene in a theatre. The sun, as yet set to us, rose to the huge peak, and glanced like lightning on his summit, n making it gleam like an amethyst. The clouds on his shaggy ribs rolled upwards, and enveloped his head and shoulders, and were replaced by the thin blue mists which ascended from the valleys, forming a fleecy canopy, beneath which appeared hill and ad dale, woods and cultivated lands, where all had been undistinguishable a minute before, and gushing streams" burst from the mountain sides like gouts of froth, marking their course in the level grounds by the vapours they sent up. Then Breere mill-towers burst into light, and cattle mills, with their cone-shaped roofs, and overseers' houses, and water mills, with the white spray falling from the wheels, and sugar-works, with long pennants of white smoke, streaming from the boiling-house chimneys in the morning wind. Immediately after, gangs of negroes were seen at work; loaded waggons, with enormous teams of fourteen to twenty oxen dragging them, rolled along the roads; long strings of mules loaded with canes were threading the fields; dragging vessels were seen to shove out from every cove; the morning song of the black fishermen was heard, while their tiny canoes, like black specks, started up suddenly on all sides of us, as if they had floated from the bottom of the sea; and the smiling scene burst at once, and as if by magic, on us, in all its coolness and beauty, under the cheer η ing influence of the rapidly rising sun. We fired a gun, and made the signal for man piloti upon which a with three negroes in it, shoved off from a small schooner lying to about a mile to leeward. They were soon alongside, when one of the three jumped on board. This was the pilot, a slave, as I knew, and, in my innocence, I expected to see something very squalid and miserable, but there was nothing of of the the kind, for I never in my life saw a more spruce salt water dandy, in a small way. He was well dressed, according to a seaman's notionclean white trowsers, check shirt, with white lapels, neatly fastened at the throat with a black ribbon, smart straw hat, and altogether he carried an appearance of comfort-I -I was going to write independenceabout him, that I was by no means prepared for. He moved about with a swaggering roll, grinning and laughing with the seamen. I say, Blackie," said Mr Douglas John Lodge, massa, if you please, massa; Blackie is not politeful, sir," r," whereupon he shewed his white teeth again. "Well, well, John Lodge, you are running us in too close surely;" and the remark seemed seasonable enough to a stranger, for the rocks on the bold shore were now within half pistolshot" Mind your eye," shouted old Anson. You will have us ashore, you black raseal!"" You, sir, what water have you here?" sung out Mr Splinter. Salt water, massa, rapped out Lodge, fairly dumfounded by such a volley of questions You hab six fadom good here; massa;" but suspecting he had gone too far I take de Tonnant, big s ship as him is, close to you might have jump inscription, setting forth that the party over whom it was erected, had been actually swallowed up in the great earthquake that destroyed the opposite town, but subsequently disgorged again; being, perchance, an unseemly morsel bia eft of st Weapproached the beach—“Oars” ashore, so you need not frighten for the brushwood, thinking they would your aleetle dish of a hooker; be pass by; but, as the devil would have side, massa, my character is at take, a it, they pulled directly for the place you know then another grin and where was ensconced, beached bow There was no use in being their boats, and jumped on shore. angry with the poor fellow, so he be Here's a mess," thought I. vay was allowed to have his own way a I soon made out that one of the Port-Royal. The in thing after we Flash, and that the parties saluted until we anchored evening at es officers was Captain Pinkem of the arrived, I went ashore with a boat's each other with that stern courtesy, operation of cutting rooms, we any masters, not enough of fighting crew to perform the magnanimous which augured no good. "So, so, pulled ashore for Green Bay, under on the coast of America, but you the guns of the Twelve ApostlesLa heavy eavy battery where there is a tombstone with an |