that must be an index of sterility: in cases analogous, the body then becomes effete; the season of decrepitude has come on; vital force is ebbing; the period of existence is determined.
Post ubi jam validis quassatum viribus ævi
Corpus et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus:
Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque,
Omnia deficiunt et uno tempore desunt,
Lucretius, de Rerum Naturá, iii. 452.
And the crisis is not something distant, whose coming is to be expected and waited for; it is at hand and imminent, presenting itself in a twofold shape. On the one hand, the Colonies no longer press their suit upon the country with whispering humbleness, as children in their nonage, but as emancipated sons they prefer their claims with manly plainness of speech; and they say that unless we lend them a patient ear, they must needs take that as of right which is not granted as of favour. On the other hand, the excessive population of these islands, pent up within the limits of a mere speck of the universe, yearns after an outlet in which to exercise its energies and hardihood. Silently, but with astonishing velocity, the tide of human life is gaining upon us. It has ebbed only once in the memory of living man. We may not expect another reflux: either we must divert the waters into fertilizing channels, so that they may wash harmlessly at our feet, or else they will recoil, gather strength, break, and overwhelm us.
These apparently are the two broad features of the colonial question, with which the coming Session of Parliament must grapple, if not bring to a prosperous issue. Upon the felicitous solution of the problem, the safety and integrity of the empire may depend. It seems hardly possible to overrate the magnitude of the danger which, like a circle of fire, encloses us on all sides; and unless the statesmen of England shall have nerve to confront that danger—not turn it aside with adroitness and dexterity, but measure strength with it—the Crown and the Mitre, the Royal Sceptre and the Pastoral Staff, may soon become traditions; mere legends of things gone by.
Is the Church to stand aloof, a cold, dignified, unimpassioned spectatrix of the solution of this great knot and juncture of England's destinies? with epicurean indifference to gaze unmoved at the spasmodic writhings of her self-expatriated children:—
Passimque videre
Errare atque viam palantes quærere vitæ?
Or, shall she assume not only a nobler part, but the very function imposed upon her by her Divine Founder, and, assimilating her life with their life, her interests with their interests, share while she heartens them under difficulties, and temper the violence of the struggle which she may not be able altogether to turn aside?
If it is lawful to augur of her future, by a review of her former bearing towards the Colonies, the omen will be indeed gloomy and unpropitious.
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Henceforth let the Church colonize itself. It has never yet attempted to do so. Now let it begin to transplant itself entire, 'a living germ, with all the powers of reproduction in herself.'[1] Strong in the strength of her Lord, let her become a leader, not a tardy attendant; let her go forth; for shame's sake let her no longer be dragged forth.
The objection to this proposal will be, that it is an experiment, and may fail. Of course it is an experiment, and may fail; but others have tried it, and did not fail; why should not we try it, and succeed? Yet it is a thousand times more comely, wise, ay, a thousand times more religious, that the experiment should be attempted though it fail, rather than that it should never be attempted at all. A nicely balanced mind, in the common affairs of daily life, will not hesitate an
- ↑ Bishop Wilberforce's History of American Church.
