sistence by gathering filth from the passages through which the smoke ascends from our fires to the upper air: look round you; you see these great buildings, tenanted by false riches, pride, ambition, voluptuousness, gluttony; and how they rise, story above story, to the roofs, surmounted by rows of funnels, that serve for the escape of the smoke which pours through them: this smoke deposits in its way a thick black crust, which being inflammable, must be often removed by some means. The only mode of clearing it effectually, is to send up a child with proper implements; he ascends through the noisome passage accordingly, by dint of labour with hands, back, and knees; emerges through the aperture at the summit, there yells his feeble shriek, announcing his important arrival to all whom it may concern, and then commences the task of clearance, by dsecending; using brush and shovel as he goes. A linen is drawn over his mouth and nostrils, else would the inhalation of the noxious dust release his misery by death from suffocation: his task completed, he drags his emaciated frame to the next mansion, and there begins to toil afresh; and so from house to house, till the day is far advanced, when sinking under accumulated sufferings and soot, he crawls to his den of

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wretchedness, exhausted, despairing. I mentioned his working until day was far advanced; in explanation I should add, that as if to aggravate the horrors of his situation, he is like the post-horse so feelingly described by our poet, "forced to shake refreshings lumber from his eyes," long before the dawn of each succeeding day to rouse from the deep sleep of childhood, at the stern bidding of a master generally hardened and depraved in a prior school of similar suffering: of the tyrant, to whom he was consigned as a beast to its driver, to feel the lash of avarice and ferocity, under the nicknames of diligence and proper correction by these means his spirit is soon broken, "he is one of his employers best boys:" his frame is checked in growth by premature labour, "He is a useful hand: he can climb where stouter boys cannot."

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"Oh, horrible!" said I, "and can no plan be devised to supersede the employment of these hapless beings?"-"None," said L"under our present system of building: as long as our dwellings tower, story on story, so long must this work of misery and death be followed. When man returns to the humble roof of the cottage, round whose lowly chimney the ivy and woodbine cling, then, and not before, by the easy expedient of passing a

handful of lighted straw from the hearth, he will be enabled to clear the passage with security.

"But, soft, here comes one of regal port;' 'stand fast, for on his brow defiance lours,' mark him, he looks, he speaks !”—“Who's that?" said I: "That's a Bishop.”—“What's a Bishop?"-"A Bishop is a Bishop, or rather a church dignitary?"—" What's a church dignitary!"-"Gently," said L-, "one at a time, if you please: but first observe the contrast between this man's appearance and the wretches we have just seen. See how sleek

he is! no soot defiles his borrowed hair: above his beak he wears a hat, called 'Clerical,' observe its pent-house brim drawn up with nicest care, as curtains op'd round Beauty's sleeping couch, to show the comfortable face below. He breathes not hard with chilliness, but keeps his ample jaws pursed up in warm conceit: observe how nice his wrappy garments sit; he carries soot bag not; his only semblances to 'bags,' are those long sleeves of lawn, which veil his arms effeminate. May we not pause and ask, can these things be? but a truce to this badinage, let us talk seriously.

"This is one of the dignitaries, that is, a man high in office and emolument, of our re

ligious establishment, called the 'high church.' To define where or what that church is, would, I fancy, puzzle one better versed in explanation than myself. The founder or founders of Christianity never even dreamed of the erection of any such national establishment, any such mode of support to priesthood, any such public edificial worship, as that establishment has assumed. The leading doctrine, the very basis of that religion, is the abolition of hireling ministry: it is founded on the destruction of the Jewish Theocracy, by whose institutions tythes and forced contributions to its priesthood were confessedly put in use why were not these done away, with the rest of the typical and ceremonial law? absolute poverty, abstinence from every earthly gratification, were drawn as its leading features; as the very essence of its characteristic doctrines, of its future influence on man: what then are we to understand by the compound words, 'church - dignities,'' church -preferments,' and 'church-possessions' of all sorts, from the Archbishop to the Vicar, from the enthronement of the one, to the induction of the other; from the prebendal stall to the acre of glebe? The doctrines of Christianity were preached to the poor and needy by the primitive disciples, who fully recognized the

equality of the creature, in the eye of the Creator. Why then are the poor still debarred from sharing its benefits, by the wealthy continuing to retain exclusive possession, to riot in the excess of those things which they were commanded to hold strictly in common with their brethren? Why are they still drunk with prosperity, whose chief glory, according to their own tenets, consists in adversity? Why are they resentful of injuries, who are to rejoice in persecution, and insult of every sort? Why do they receive riches here, whose only treasure is in heaven; and follow after ease and pleasure, whose virtues are directed to consist in mortification and suffering, in knowledge of Christ only, and of him crucified? A rich and prosperous true believer in the divinity of the Christian revelation, is a contradiction in terms: a primitive convert and a modern baptizee, are no more like each other than 'I to Hercules.' Profession of Christianity, and possession of a tittle more than will suffice to keep body and soul together, are anomalies: 'You cannot,' said Christ, 'serve God and Mammon.' Why do the ministers of this religion court the pomp of cathedrals, and mitres, and crosiers, who were commanded to go forth with staff in hand? Why do they and their households revel in the splendour