poor town population. And how many are there who, worn down by them day by day, are without the solace and refreshment of domestic life. Their number, too, must of course be greatly increased, if we plant in a great town thirty, forty, fifty, or even an hundred new churches, each of which is to have its minister, and often two; while the endowments, for a time at least, cannot be expected to be large. How dear to them would be such a society as has been suggested; the bond between its members drawn closer by daily social prayers and all the blessed intercourse of religious fellowship; and how beneficially would such colleges affect the Church at large; which, besides other functions too numerous to be here detailed, would afford to candidates for the ministry a school at once for theological study and for the practice of the pastoral care; and that (as it might easily be arranged) at so low a cost, as to remove the only serious objection, which has hitherto prevented the English Church from providing for every candidate, something of a professional as well as a liberal education.
Considerable practical improvements, again, might be adopted in the internal administration of our parishes. The pastor, in general, stands too much alone; and, as a king who is without a senate and a body of nobility is more absolute, but less safe, so the priest, doing all himself, is often liable to exercise his unchecked authority
