FACTS AND PROGRESS. 463 day. This article was evidently the product of some personal spite. The author had had a quarrel with some clergyman and revenged himself thus on the whole class. It is almost a wonder that the offender was not singled out by name, and accused of infidelity, or forgery, or dishonest meddling with railroads or joint-stock banks. Such is the usual mode of revenge with writers in the "Times." Now it is evident that such a course of conduct as that which we are recommending would effectually prevent such attacks as that in the "Times." DISTRESSED CLERGY. THE columns of our daily papers have been recently filled with letters detailing the most agonizing cases of distress among the "working clergy." It is probable that so far from there being more of this distress suffered now than in past times, there is really much less; but now the sufferers have been encouraged by public sympathy to speak out; and, save the brutal assault on them by a leading writer in the "Times," to which we have just alluded, there seems a general inclination to recognise and relieve their necessities. "The Friend of the Clergy," a society which has lately been set on a most satisfactory footing by the exertions of Lord St. Leonards, Lord Lyttleton, and others, offers the best means of relieving such distress. It not only provides permanent pensions for the widows and orphan daughters of poor deceased clergymen, but it comes to the aid of the clergy themselves, when, as is so frequently the case, the wretched stipends of curacies are insufficient to provide the necessaries of life. This excellent charity is hardly so well known as it deserves to be. It has, moreover, the great advantage of being so well administered that its large operations are carried on at a small expense-no little recommendation in days like these. JOINT-STOCK BANKS. Two or three failures have lately taken place in the banking world which have not only caused extreme distress and wide-spread ruin, but have excited doubts as to the stability of that system of banking which has lately threatened to absorb all the private banking firms. Joint-stock banks came before the public with the promise of peculiar advantages. Their promoters said, we have no calls to make, as private bankers have, for large sums to support our families, for horses, carriages, and all that show which unless a private : banker makes he is supposed to be sinking in the world, and so brings suspicion on his firm we have only to pay moderate salaries and our profits are all divided among our proprietors. Such was the language held out to shareholders. To depositors it was said, with a private banker your risk amounts to this-you have no means of ascertaining the stability of the firm to which you trust your money: they may be on the verge of bankruptcy when you imagine them to be most flourishing, and if they fail all you have deposited goes with them with us, on the contrary, you will be able to see our balance sheet, and may judge of our position from those periodical statements which we are bound to publish for the benefit of our shareholders. Besides this, if we should fail you have your remedy against the whole body of proprietetors-all and several-their last shilling and their last acre is liable to pay your demand, so that to lose money is morally impossible. These representations are founded in truth, although there must be some limitation to their acceptance. At the same time they are so manifestly reasonable that they had their full effect, joint-stock banks went up and private banking began to be looked upon with hesitation. The failure of Strahan, Paul and Bates added to the previous impression, and it seemed extremely probable that the present race of bankers would be the last. Some check has, however, been given to this feeling by the successive failures of the Tipperary Bank and the Royal British. The first is, however, altogether an abnormal crash, and it is not likely that anything similar to it will occur again. The Sadleirs had boundless confidence reposed in them, and they practised the most unbounded roguery. No such balance sheets as theirs will ever be accepted again-no such dictatorships will be formed, "Horret quisque adire locum," and with regard to the Royal British, the depositors are by this time congratulating themselves that they had not placed their money in private hands. They may now compare their condition with that of the depositors with Strahan, Paul and Co., and rejoice that they have been wise enough to choose a joint-stock bank, which, though it may ruin its shareholders, can only subject them to temporary inconvenience, and those minor losses which result from delay. In the midst of this congratulation, and we admit that there is solid ground for it, it is not to be forgotten that joint-stock banks want looking after; and it is probable that the failures which have just taken place will be the means, at least for many years, of securing that supervision on the part of the interested persons, OF FACTS AND PROGRESS. 465 without which no human institution can be expected to go on safely. We hear, with regret, that considerable sums belonging to the clergy, and, in some cases, destined for church purposes, are locked up in the Royal British Bank. LIFE ASSURANCE. CLOSELY connected with the foregoing is the subject of life assurance, and the public has had so many warnings of late that it may seem almost needless to caution them against unsafe offices. Some have said, have recourse only to old longestablished offices. This is safe advice as far as it goes: but it is manifestly unfair to the younger offices to class them all as unsafe because they are more recently established. Everything must have a beginning, and the very fact of the older offices being so flourishing now, is itself a kind of pledge that the more recent ones will be so in due time. Moreover, like banking, assurance cannot fail if properly managed. And though it cannot be denied that a great multitude of offices have been established by unqualified persons, merely to make positions for themselves, yet we are far from being overassured. As yet the principle of life assurance is not half developed, and there is room enough for all the existing offices that are based on sound principles, and even for many more. Our own advice would be-look to those offices which offer reasonable advantages, and see by whom they are managed, inquire concerning the commercial and financial status of trustees, directors and managers, and act accordingly. THE PROSPERITY OF IRELAND. IRELAND, which was long the reproach of our Government, is now rapidly assuming her proper position. The operation of the Encumbered Estates Bill, coming after so extensive an emigration as that which has lately taken place, and which has not yet entirely ceased, has called in the aid of English capital, set at liberty more money in Ireland itself than was supposed to exist there, and has stimulated the whole nation to exertions such as have never been seen in the country before. The Irish Exhibition of 1853 has had its full share in this development; and though a failure in itself, so far as an immediate return in cash was concerned, it has yet been the means of spreading Irish commerce and of enlarging the Irish mind more than for many years yet will be thoroughly known. That an island, on the whole the most beautiful and fertile in the world, inhabited by a quick-witted race of men, should be the abode only of anarchy and distress, is an anoma VOL. XL. I I lous state of things entirely, and we rejoice to see that the anomaly is now being removed. Irish agriculture is flourishing, their corn, their other crops, their cattle, their pigs, will now bear a favourable comparison with those of England and Scotland; the old rebellious spirit is dying, if not dead; and the energies which used to be employed in declaiming against the Saxon, are now better engaged in developing the splendid resources of a magnificent country. Ireland may now be said to be the most prosperous part of her Majesty's dominions, and it is well worthy of consideration, that just in proportion to this material prosperity has Protestantism made progress among the people. Protestants in Ireland are all at one, they are before a common enemy, and are united accordingly; they have no time to quarrel about minor points, in the awful presence of the great Romish apostacy. Hence we find Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists working harmoniously together, and maintaining the most amicable relations. One consequence of this is, that their united operations against Popery have been crowned with the most extraordinary success. And in Connaught, once the stronghold of Romanism, because at the same time the stronghold of ignorance, filth and poverty, new converts are being won over by thousands to education, industry, cleanliness, and Protestantism. BRITISH AND FOREIGN SAILORS' INSTITUTE. THIS admirable institution, long known under the title of the Bethel Union, has now enlarged its operations, and expanded into a more general and more permanently useful form. It boasts now a building of no mean architectural pretensions, containing a large hall for lectures or preaching, a savings'-bank, reading-rooms, coffee-rooms, and, in fact, it places at the disposal of the sailor all the conveniences of a gentleman's club. When it is considered that that portion of the metropolis, commonly called the Port of London, is one of the worst in its moral and social condition, that the sailor newly discharged from his ship is almost necessarily thrown into collision with the most depraved and dangerous of both sexes, it will at once be understood how incalculable is the value of that agency which seeks him out on board his ship, supplies him with rational amusement, recommends him to a safe home, takes care of him, of his hardly-earned wages, and introduces him to profitable companions. When once a seaman on shore has become accustomed to such accommoda FACTS AND PROGRESS. 467 tion, such entertainment, and such society as he will meet at the Sailors' Institute, he is a lost man to crimps and their associates. The society is making great exertions to affiliate to itself all similar institutions in the United Kingdom, and we are gratified to find that Lord Carlisle, in his capacity of Viceroy of Ireland, has consented to become the Vice-Patron of the Institution, Prince Albert being the Patron. THE COLONIAL CHURCH. LONDON in Canada is to be the seat of a new bishopric; Dr. Courtney is the Bishop of Kingston in Jamaica; and Dr. Cotteril goes out to succeed Bishop Armstrong at Graham's Town; Christ-Church, in New Zealand, is to have Dr. Harper, who will, it is hoped, be a fitting coadjutor to the apostolic Selwyn. None of these appointments call for any especial remark, save that Dr. Spencer ought not to be called any longer Bishop of Jamaica, nor Dr. Selwyn Bishop of New Zealand, seeing that they preside episcopally only over a portion of those islands respectively. We have little confidence in the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts-all its appointments savour of Tractarianism, and it has far too much influence in the choice of colonial bishops. The whole colony of the Cape has, we fear, been half Romanized by its nominee, Dr. Gray; an excellent and conscientious man, but whose ultra-high-church views have been productive of extreme mischief in that colony. We hope that all future appointments made by the present Government will be made without the interference of that Society, at least until it is under other and better management. And here we will just observe, that we would gladly see our own home system carried out a little further than it now is in our colonies. Why should not the prelates of Calcutta, Sydney, Jamaica and Quebec be called archbishops ?— they are denominated metropolitans. The colonies would be pleased with the added dignity, and the consecration of colonial bishops might take place in the metropolitan church of the colonial province. The real reason of objection seems to be one of mere form-the precedence of an archbishop would interfere with that of a governor. But surely there is no real necessity for this; an Act of Parliament, if such a thing were needed, could remove every difficulty; and as to precedency, the Queen is the fountain of honour, and her will would settle that matter at once. We are of opinion that if this plan were tried-and especially if colonial clergymen were frequently chosen for colonial sees, one more |