is the end of all this stir. Religion is war. Christians forsaking their one Lord, gather under various standards, to gain victory for their sects. Politics are war.' Although describing, thus powerfully, the horrible working of the doctrines of the free school, and lamenting over the confused condition into which all societies are being thrown by them, yet Dr. Channing continued to imbibe and to cherish the spirit of this school, and to rest his faith on its principles and doctrines. A third instance. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Whately, is well known as a renowned Professor of Political Economy of the University of Oxford, and as a writer on the science. A man who had studied specially with Dr. Whately at Oxford, and, besides having been a co-student, knew him most intimately, having resided long in his family circle, I mean Blanco White, has recorded in his published correspondence † that the Archbishop had discerned that Revealed Religion, or the Gospel of Christ, was antagonistic of Political Economy that it conveyed to the world false Political Economy. Notwithstanding this, we have not heard of any doubt having been entertained or expressed by the Archbishop of the truth of the doctrines of the school of Political Economists. It is by him preferred and this is the case generally—to permit the doubt to rest on, and to operate against, the character of revealed religion, rather than to rest on and to operate against the character of the received, and so much loved, doctrines of Political Economy. - Wise and sound counsel has been given by a clever poet, he having recommended that we "Admire superior sense, and doubt our own." *The Present Age, by Dr. Channing, p. 32. The Political Economy schoolmen have thought it more becoming to reverse this maxim, and to read it thus: "Doubt superior sense, admire our own." I have to adduce, however, one noble example of a contrary kind, and that afforded by a man of genius of the present age. I mean Mr. Carlyle. The bad social character of the principles and doctrines of the Political Economy school, was not allowed to escape the penetrating mind of this clever writer; consequently he has written of them, and prognosticated of them, in the following manner:-"Benthamic Radicalism, or the Gospel of Enlightened Selfishness; the latest invention, or the last announced human Gospel; is about to die out." - Thus it is shown that this writer discerned that the newlyerected system of human volition and action - the received system of Political Economy - that system which has been aptly called the Gospel of Enlightened Selfishness - contains the element of its own disruption and destruction; but, being so artfully and skilfully constructed as to invoke and minister to the selfish passions, to the love of money, to general pleasures, and to the ambition of men,-it is esteemed as a rule of action and of life, far above the restraining, the selfdenying, (for the high purpose of diffusing,) and the qualifying Gospel of Christ; so that, excepting in comparatively few cases, the true Gospel is being received and held only in name and profession, and for purposes of ostentatious worship; whilst the false Gospel, being placed side by side with the true, or else so intimately blended with it as to deceive the careless, the wavering, and the faithless, is that Gospel which really commands the love, the support, the veneration, the active devotion, and the faith of almost all people. It is * Past and Present, by Thomas Carlyle, book 1, ch. v. p. 37. thought and declared to be a glorious work - the grand mission of the age-to convey this - the worldly Gospel -the Gospel of Enlightened Selfishness or free social action - throughout the universe, in order that its leaven may be infused into all rising civilisation. I have now finished an examination of the world's social creed; its received and cherished creed. It has been often said, and that with great truth, that it is far easier to pull down than to build up; to disprove than to prove. It has to be declared also as true, that he who undertakes to perform the one has to remember that the other is required at his hands. A solemn duty appertains. Having intended at the commencement that in performing the work of examining, disproving, and rejecting, nothing should be attempted or accomplished that was not required for the cause of truth, I trust that this rule has been observed; though I trust, at the same time, that on labouring for the cause of truth by means of the discovery, and eradication, of error, I have left nothing unnoticed, nothing spared, which has not a right to a place within this sphere. If the false and bad principle be undermined and destroyed, all its issues fall with it; just as a tree with all its branches perishes and falls when severed from the roots that convey its sustenance. In place, then, of the principle examined, disproved, and rejected, another principle has to be presented and established. In showing the converse of that particular principle and system of free commercial action and intercourse, which have been propounded and erected with so much ardour and perseverance, the course required to be shown, is not that by which the freedom of man, either in his individual or collective capacity, the freedom of trade and commerce, shall be abrogated; by which the openness of the whole world to the general family of man shall be prevented; by which the communication of nation with nation shall be denied; or by which the just, due, and wanted advancement and progress shall be either impeded or diminished. The principle required to be discovered and explained, is that by which natural law, comprehending all these, together with other advantageous courses, may be established and fulfilled. The principle which shall direct how freedom is to be used; how construction is to be accomplished, and that which is destructive avoided; how the beneficial courses emanating from free agency are to be attained, and the unjust and mischievous courses averted. The writers, who, having undertaken to treat of Social and Political Economy, have propounded and erected the prevailing free-trade principle and system, have confounded the right to possess individual freedom,—the right to enjoy openness of the whole world - freedom of commerce and trade with FREE ACTION. They have advocated the use and enjoyment of all things without that natural rule and law by which alone all are to be made to promote the general advantage, or to be generally serviceable and good, and hence to involve true progressiveness. In setting up their principle of free action, and contending for it as they have done, the writers of the free school have shown themselves to be ignorant of that of which all science is constituted; for, throughout every department of science, let the subject-matter of the science be whatever it may, free action has not, neither can have, any place. The main duty imposed on him who undertakes to treat of, and to show, science, is that of establishing the LAW of the subject-matter of which he has to treat, so that when he has succeeded in accomplishing the work undertaken to be performed by him, and which is that of discovering and establishing science-FREE action is altogether expelled. The noble course, showing action connected with, and governed by, ITS LAW, is laid open for the use and guidance of all who have to perform a part within the sphere of action. That difficulties of a very serious, and, sometimes, of an insurmountable character, lie in the way of statesmen, who have to advise on, and to conduct, the affairs of nations, is indeed evident; so evident, that it is often declared that however right and salutary a principle and a course may be, yet it is not possible to get people in general to conform to them. Hence it is argued and concluded, that there is no use whatever, or rather that there is positive misuse, and even mischief, in making statutory laws which people in general will not revere, which they will not observe, and against which they will be in constant and systematic rebellion. But, by the difficulty thus acknowledged, statesmen derive no right or authority to admit that the principle and course are not true. The falsehood political is as bad, as dishonourable, as degrading, and as sinful, as any other falsehood. The statesman may fairly admit that in cases where it is evident that statutory or positive laws will prove unavailing, it will be impolitic to enact them, and he may decline to enact them in the existing condition of the people's taste, temper, and want of principle; but he should still contend boldly for that which, in his conviction, is true and salutary. He should warn the people of the consequences that will inevitably come upon them by a departure from a just principle and course. The policy and practice of statesmen in general are very different from this. It is deemed by them prudent and enlightened policy to go with the current of the times; to adapt themselves and their measures to the spirit of the age. By this they derive their temporary reward, their triumph, and their fame. But for all violations of her laws, it is ordained that nature shall visit the people with her rod, and, |