(b) THE COUNTY IN SECTIONS.

But it is impossible to treat the subject fairly by regarding the county as a whole; for some portions of it are rural and others urban; some agricultural, and others manufacturing or commercial. Let us, therefore, attempt a second approximation, still comparing what the Church has done with the requirements of the community. For public purposes the county is divided into North and South; the former of which divisions is chiefly rural, while the latter is distinguished for its great towns. If, therefore, we compare the progress in these divisions respectively, we have the following:

Thus, while the increase of Population over the whole county was 261 per cent; in the Northern division it was only 167; but in the Southern 294. It is clear, therefore, that the increment of population over the whole county gradually flowed towards those reservoirs in the south, which constitute the great homes of industry. In the matter of Churches also, while the increase for the whole county was 118 per cent., it was only 70 in the Northern division, and 163 in the Southern. In other words, though the population of the Southern division did not increase twice as fast as that in the Northern, the churches in the Southern division increased nearly two and a-half times as fast as those in the Northern. This fact illustrates a previous remark. It shows that the population in most of the Northern divisions of the shire was only a little more condensed; while the population in the Southern division was often the creation of new communities, consisting of those associated with new and important centres of industry.

We may further compare, as in the case of the whole county, the increment of population with the new churches, and the facts presented are not without interest. In 1801 there was, in the Northern division, a church for every 1,682 persons; but, in the course of sixty years, 342,252 persons were added, and only 86 churches. This was only a church for every 3,079; a population not greatly too large, if conveniently distributed. But the facts show that the distribution was very unequal, some places remaining stationary, or retrograding in numbers, while others increased with great rapidity. In the Southern division, on the contrary, there was, in 1801, a church for every 3,907 persons, so that it was almost as deficient in supply at the commencement of the sixty years as the Northern division was for its increment of population at the close.

During the period, it added 1,403,752 to its population, and only 210 to the number of its churches. This was a church for every 6,684 persons in the southern division.

(c) THE BOROUGHS AND THE COUNTY PROPER.

Let us proceed, however, to a more minute examination, to a third approximation. Let us separate the population, and church accommodation of the Boroughs, from that of the County proper. Of these there are fourteen in Lancashire; five in the northern division and nine in the southern; besides fragments of borough populations which centre in Cheshire. In every instance but one where they differ, the municipal limits are narrower than the parliamentary. Yet I have selected for examination, for sufficient reasons, the municipal boroughs only. Some of them, like Burnley, were not incorporated in 1801, and others, like Rochdale, present rather confused statements for that period; so that great pains were necessary in arriving at any definite results, and the figures are still open to slight revision. In 1801 the Boroughs included 311,670, and the County proper 361,816. other words, a small number of towns contained 46 per cent of the population, and all the rest of the county contained the remaining

In

54. But in 1861 the relations were altered. The same towns embraced 1,479,130 of the population, and all the rest of the country 1,050,310; i. e. 57 per cent. to the Boroughs, and 43 to the County. Thus, it appears that the facts which are foreshadowed respecting all England, have already occurred in this great county; its population has already become a town population. This is still more apparent, if we add the population of all the towns given in the census returns. These are forty-seven in number, each of which contains a population of 2,000 and upwards; and their joint population amounts to 1,679,989, or 69 per cent. of that of the whole shire. Thus, we demonstrate that the Lancashire population is, as a whole, a town population; and that the laws and customs which apply to rural districts merely, will not suffice here.

It may be further stated that the joint area of the Boroughs alluded to is about one-twentieth of the area of the whole County; so that 57 per cent. of human beings stand upon one measure of space, and 43 per cent. upon 19 such measures. In other words, in the boroughs there is an average of nineteen persons to the acre, and in the county proper an average of only one.

When we compare the churches for the boroughs with the churches for the county proper, we see the effect of concentration on the one hand and of wide local distribution on the other. The 57 per cent. of population in the Boroughs have only 30 per cent. of the churches, viz., 167; while the 43 per cent scattered over the County have 70 per cent. of the churches, or 380 in all. Accordingly, in the boroughs there is one church for every 8,957 persons, and in the county proper, one for every 2,674. In other words, a cure of souls in town comprises a population 3 times as great as a cure of souls in the country. Nor does this express the whole of the facts of the case. Besides the umbra or deep shadow of population, which constitutes the town, there is in every instance a penumbra, or circle of resident population, extending frequently four or five miles beyond the limits. Thus the portions of the county which imme

diately surround the towns are gradually condensing into town population, and raising the average of those rural districts where county population in reality is found.

Thus far I have viewed the growth of the Church in Lancashire as compared with the necessities of the population. But there is another point of view from which we might examine the facts, viz., the growth of the Church as compared with other professing Christians. And here I may say that the comparison must be instituted mainly with Protestant Dissenters of various classes; for though Roman Catholics are relatively numerous in Lancashire-Lancashire and Middlesex containing the half of all that are in England-they are neither absolutely numerous, nor influential, nor increasing. They consist of two separate elements, viz. (1) the English Roman Catholics who, from remoteness of situation and permanence of belief among the gentry, never experienced the full effects of the Reformation; and (2), the immigrant Romanists from Ireland. No class of the community is so fond of boasting of its conversions; yet it is evident that whatever progress' is made in Lancashire, is owing simply to immigration and re-distribution.

Our fellow-Christians who are known as Protestant Dissenters occupy a different position. They adapt themselves to popular feeling and popular circumstances; and, taking advantage of the insufficiency of ordinances afforded by the church, their progress has been greatest among the great manufacturing communities. Yet it is surprising to see how little their efforts have done to enlighten the blackest spots of our home heathenism, and how persistently they till the field which is already more or less under cultivation.

The analysis of the population of all England gives us the following: Roman Catholics, 3 per cent.; Protestant dissenters, and others, 29 per cent.; worshippers in our churches, 42; non-worshippers, to whom the church is home missionary, 25. There are thus 33 per cent. who dissent from the church, and 67 per cent. (or rather more than two-thirds) who are under her direct influence.

Now the modification which these figures undergo in this county is the following, showing our special circumstances as distinct from the circumstances of England in general :-Roman Catholic, 11 per cent.; Protestant dissenters, 21 per cent. ; worshippers in our churches, 27; non-worshippers, 41. It thus appears that the religious bodies in any degree opposed to the Church jointly number only 32 per cent., or less than the amount in England generally; while those under the direct influence of the church amount to 68, or more than that for England generally. But it is in comparing the component parts of the latter number that our real condition is seen. The former figures (42 and 25) almost change places, for there are only 27 per cent. who are church attenders, and 41 who are non-worshippers. One thing is quite clear, therefore, that the loss of the Church in Lancashire has not been the gain of Dissent; and that the deficiency which was caused by our own inability to supply the spiritual wants of the population, has not been supplied in Lancashire more than in England generally, or even so much. What the church has lost, has been lost, if not to religion, at least to religious worship altogether; aud there is no reason why increased efforts should not enable us to recover the lost ground. There are special localities, no doubt, in whicn Protestant dissenters

have supplied the defects of the church; but I speak here of the county at large.

It may be interesting to obtain a second approximation too; to see its condition in several great subdivisions, as deduced from official figures. There are 26 registration districts, or Poor-law Unions, within the county of Lancaster; and, as the census of religious worship gives the numbers for each separately, we are enabled to analyse them according to the principle laid down by Mr. Horace Mann. In one instance (Ulverstone), the Church attenders rise to 66 per cent., which is higher than the highest Church county of England, viz. Suffolk; for the whole of which the Church attenders amount to nearly 64. In Garstang they reach 56; in Lancaster and Ormskirk, 50; in Clitheroe, 49; in the Fylde, 45; and in Warrington, 44, Here, then, are seven registration districts, most of them united, and all of them removed from the influence of commerce and manufactures, in which the Church holds a higher position than she does in England generally. There are eight* other registration districts, lying continuously across the whole county, in which the Church attendance varies from 37 per cent. to 27; and in these the Church feeling is above the average for all Lancashire, but below the average for England. The next set of districts-six in number-are all below the average, and show the places where the Church has suffered, but not most severely. These all lie in manufacturing regions, but not in those most noted for public and private works. They are Burnley, Barton, Ashton, Chorley, Preston, and Chorlton, where the Church attendance ranges from 261 to 22. In every one of the cases, however, it exceeds the average of Protestant dissenters of all kinds united in the county at large. Below these, five districts remain, which in the order of diminution are, Salford, Rochdale, Liverpool, Oldham, and Manchester-Manchester being the lowest. In these the Church has suffered most severely, or has allowed the largest number to forget the assembling of themselves together; and it is in these localities that the greatest efforts should be made, not so much in providing new folds for the sheep, as in securing an addition of faithful shepherds to bring them in.

It would be interesting, did time permit, to notice other collateral facts which serve to illustrate the principles shown here. One only may be referred to in passing: it is the subject of school education. In all England the Church possesses 86 per cent. of the schools which are called "denominational," or supported in any degree by religious bodies; and in all Lancashire she possesses 67 per cent. Thus it appears that all other religious bodies, in England generally, support 14 per cent of the schools, and in Lancashire 33 per cent. But, as in the case of chapels, Protestant dissenters are more easily satisfied than we, and also regard a congregation as a body to be preached to, instead of to be ministered to,—so in the case of schools; theirs are, with few exceptions, less costly, capacious, and permanent. But it is interesting to see that the Church is a strong promoter of education; and that in the very registration districts, in which church attendance stands highest, we find schools also occupying a high place. Thus in Lancaster, Clitheroe, the Fylde, Ulverstone, Prescot, and Warrington, the Church possesses from 96 to 79 per cent. of the denomina

* West Derby, 37; Prescot, 35; Haslingden, 34; Leigh, 31; Wigan, 31; Blackburn, 284; Bolton, 27; Bury, 27.

tional schools; while at the other end of the line, in Chorley, Garstang, Manchester, Wigan, and Liverpool, she possesses only from 55 to 50 per cent. This is accounted for in a great degree by the fact that those who dissent from the Church are not one but many; and though a large proportion of them do not think it necessary or convenient to have schools, there are still so many in comfortable circumstances who encourage education, that their schools appear very numurous.

I have thus, in my own way, examined the county as a whole, and in its parts; and while glancing but slightly at causes and effects, have endeavoured to state the facts as distinctly as possible. It is clear that self-interest operates first and forcibly on men's minds; and the suggestions of duty afterwards, and with diminished force. Commercial and manufacturing enterprise rush forward with the rapidity of an express train, while the fulfilment of moral obligations lags behind like a lumbering stage coach. This is not a Lancashire failing; it is a trait of human nature; but the great physical progress of our county during the present century has made the contrast between business and duty appear unusually forcible. In these circumstances, it is well to see the precise spots where disease exists, and the amount of danger which it exhibits. But, apart from all these facts, there has been a strong undercurrent of Church feeling, which has acquired marked strength during the last ten years. It is shown in the greater attention to the poor, and in the improved conduct of the working classes. It is shown in improvement of church architecture; not in costly elegance alone, but in homely suitableness. It is shown by an increase of publications devoted to Church matters, and by the increasing popularity of Church subjects, both in public and in private. During the assaults which the Church sustained in 1862, several of the Lancashire clergy stood from first to last in the fore-front of the battle; and though last, not the least example of an improved Church feeling, is the very Congress to which I address myself.

Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice.

I feel assured that its presence here is an omen for good, and that it will be attended not only with blessings for England generally, but with special blessings for Lancashire.

DISCUSSION.

The Earl of HARROWBY said he came to say a few words on behalf of the much execrated Ecclesiastical Commissioners. He thought it was not quite out of season, when they had been rejoicing over the progress of the Church in Lancashire, that there should be some indulgence for that body, without which that growth could hardly have been made. He imagined that one of the great principles upon which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners proceeded was this,that they took the funds which were considered to be in excess in some districts and applied them to those districts where that excess did not exist. This was one source of their unpopularity. Those who received were not very grateful, and those from whom the money was taken felt it a loss to which they could never give sufficient utterance. But he would ask what the county of Lancaster, with its growing population, would have done, if this principle had not been called into existence, and it had been left to itself? Parliament had laid down the principles on which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners acted. Without this readjustment no progress could have been made. There was even under the Church of Rome a power to transfer endowments: the principle then existed, and was acted upon largely, of transferring the excess to districts which required more attention.