OCR Rendition - approximate

130 STATISTICAL 1NQntltlrs INTO sion be permitted. Tropical lever, for example, is duo to runny subtle causes which are partly Under tuna's control. A single how's exposure to sun, or well or fatigue, or mcntnl agitation, 'viii dt,tvimine ant attack. Now even if' (lout acted only on the ntitula of the missiounvies, his action naught he us uaelt to till, ndvtntla;;c of Lhrir heall.lt as if )to wrought. a physical miracle. III, could tlusuoclin, theta to tube those courses which might. recall, in nriichaticc, such a: the forced tnitrelt, life wetting, the aibstinoaco frnut food, or the night exposmr, filly one of which was competent to dovclope the fcv,.r that st.ruol: theta down. W"e tuusl, not dwell upon till, circuastanc.-s t,t individual. cases, find say " thus was n prorideul.ual ('snipe," or " that was a wlitlnry ehfistisimenf," but, w•o taunt. take the broad av,'rng's of mortality, and, when we do so, ire find that. the not I'orin it fitvotnrd cidss. The eflieacy of' prayer ndty yet. further he tested by ingniry into the proportion of deaths tit the time of birth among the children of the praying and 1-ho non-praying classes. The solucittule of' parents is so powerfully directed towards the safely of their expected offspring its to leave no room !o doubt that pious parents pray fervently for it, especially as death before baptism considered a most serious evil by ninny Christians. Ilowover, the distribution of still-births appears wholly unaffected by piety. The proportion, for instance, of the still-births published in the Rreool newspaper and in the Tuxes was found by me, on an examination of a particular period, to bear an identical relation to the total number of deaths. This inquiry might, easily be pursued by those who considered that more ample evidence was required. When wo pray in our Liturgy that the nobility stay be endued with grace, wisdom, and understanding," we pray for that which is clearly incompatible with insanity. Does that frightful scourge spire our nobility F Does it spare very religious people more than others The answer is an emphatic negative to both of these questions. The nobility, probably from their want of the wholesome, restraints felt in humbler walks of life, and from' their intermarriages, and the very religious people of all denominations, probably from their meditations on hell, are peculiarly subject to it. Religious madness is -very common indeed. As I have already hinted, I do not propose any special inquiry whether the general laws of physical nature are ever suspended in .fulfilment of prayer: whether, for instance, success has attended the occasional prayers in the Liturgy when they have been used for rain, for fair weather, for the stilling of the sea in a storm, or for the abatement of a pestilence. I abstain from doing so for two reasons. First, if it is proved that God does not answer one"large class of prayers at all, it would 1e of less importance to pursue the inquiry. econdlyc the mcxlern fsel_,;ne of this country is• so' opposed to a' belief rIII: EFFICACY OF PUAYIM. 131 in the occasional suspension of the general laws of nature, that an l'nglisli render would tool-e43, smile at snail all investigation. it' X1 I. :u„ eatisfied tltnt, till, actions of tn;ut fire not intluenccil by prayer, t~vt-n through fill; t+uhtlo intiucners of his tltouglcts :tad will, th - only probaldc farm of agency will have been disproved, and nno ate' would car, I,, rtdvatu,C:t elaicn un titvowcr of direct pbysic:d inter do rio1t 1 t tme Ibnl devotional ittflunnces leave clustered l ~, . 1 t in ant' rcrustf•ltnblc dego'' codicil tilt, voutlt of those who, whether by their Into nt+ or social positiaa, huvc left n nntrk upon our Loglish history, I;ord ('annpbcli, in his preface ht the " Lives of till] (_'han. cellon ays "'There is no ollicu ill the history of any nation that has been tilictl with such a long sucecs:nion of distinguished and interesting no-II [Is life oflicc of Lord ('hnnrellor," and that. "generally speaking,, the most eminent ionic, if mott the, most, virtuous, have been selected to atl,rn it." Ills implied disparagemedt, of' their piety is fully suntalned by nn ('5amination of their respective biographies, and by a taunt, of Ilorace Wttlpole, filleted in the same preface.- An egtinl absence of rcuucrIcable devotional tendencies may be observed in the lives of the lenders of grrrat political plu't ins. ,. The founders of our great families too often owed their advancement to tricky and tune-serving coart.iership. The belief so frequently expressed in the Psalms, that the descendants of the righteous shall continue, and that those of the wicked shall surely fail, is not fulfilled ill the history of our English peerage. Take for instance the highest class, that of the Ducal houses. The influence of social position in this country is so enormous that the possession of a dukedom is a power that can hardly be understood without some sort of calculation. There are, I believe, only twenty-seven dukes to about eight millions of adult male Englishmen, or,abouf three dukes to each million, yet the cabinet of fourteen ministers which governs this country, and India too, commonly contains one duke, often two, and in recent times three. The political privilege inherited with a dukedom in this country is at the lowest estimate many thousand-fold above the average birthright of Englishmen. What was the origin of these ducal families whose influence on the destiny of J;nglnnd and her dependencies is so enormous? Were their founders the eminently devout children of eminently pious parents? Dave they full their ancestors been distinguished among the praying classes? Not so, I give in a footnn'e' a list of, their names, which recalls many a, deed of patriotism, valour, and skill, many an instance of eminent merit of the worldly sort, which we Englishmen honour six' days out of the seven-many scandals;, many a disgrace, but not, on the other hand, a single instance (1) Aberdorn, Argyll, Atbolo, Beaufort, Bedford, Buccleuch, Buckingham, Cloveland, Devonshire, Grafton, Hamilton, Leeds, Leinster, Manchester, Marlborough, Montrose, Newcastle, Norfogc, Northumberland, Portland, Richmond, Rosburghe, Butland 5t. Albans, Somerset, Sutherland, Welingten.