erous, that the poor may
eventually decide for themselves what portion it may be that they may be
pleased to take; and this becomes the more dangerous, as it must be
remembered, that the effect of the poor laws is _repulsion_ between the
two classes, from the one giving unwillingly, and the other receiving
unthankfully. How the new Poor Law Bill will work remains to be proved;
but this is certain, that much individual suffering must take place,
before it works out the great end which it is intended to obtain.

That the Roman Catholic laity are more charitable is not a matter of
surprise, as they are not subjected to forced contributions: but it
appears to me that the Catholic clergy are much more careful and kind to
their flocks than our own. Now, indeed, can it be otherwise, when even
now, although so much reform in the Church has been effected, so many of
our clergymen are pluralists and non-residents, expending the major part
of the church revenue out of the parish, leaving to the curate, who
performs the duty, a stipend which renders it impossible for him to
exercise that part of his Christian duty to any extent?--for charity
_begins_ at home, and his means will not allow him to proceed much
farther. That serious evils have arisen from the celibacy of the Roman
clergy is true, for priests are but men, and are liable to temptation;
but it is equally certain that when a Roman Catholic clergyman is a pure
and pious man, he has nothing to distract his attention from the
purposes of his high calling; and not only his whole attention is
devoted to his flock, but his existence, if necessary, is voluntarily
endangered. At the period of the cholera, there were many remarkable
instances of this devotion to death on the part of the Roman priesthood,
and as many, I am forced to say, of the Protestant clergy flying from
the epidemic, and leaving their flocks without a shepherd. And why so?
because the Protestant clergymen had wives and families depending upon
them for support, and whose means of existence would terminate with
their own lives. It was very natural that they should prefer the
welfare of their own families to that of their parishioners. But in
other cases not so extreme, the encumbrance of a family to a clergyman
in England is very often in opposition to his duty. To eke out a scanty
remuneration, he sets up a school or takes in pupils. Now if the duties
of a clergyman consisted in merely reading the service