I doubt much whether the provisions of this bill give such a controul to the government as will afford a full knowledge to the parliament at all times of the course pursued by the commissioners; but in committee on the bill, I shall consider whether some alteration is not necessary, in order to make that control more active.  There are several other clauses in the bill which require much alteration and modification.  I entirely approve of the removal of the allowance system, which is one of the greatest evils arising from the existing poor-laws; but I am of opinion that it ought gradually and slowly to have been destroyed, and without a fixed day for its termination being specified in the bill.  I would recommend that this clause should be left out, and that power should be given to the commissioners to carry gradually such alterations in this respect into effect, as to them may seem meet.

July 81,1834.

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Tests no Security to Religion.

The noble duke, amongst other matters, has adverted to the union between church and state, with respect to which he has made some observations which are undoubtedly worthy of consideration, but to which I do not intend, on this occasion, to offer any answer.  I will, however, just observe, that I apprehend what is generally meant by dissevering the union of the church and state is, that there should be no established religion.  To that proposition, I trust it is superfluous for me to say that I am a most decided opponent.  It is, however, a subject which I cannot now pretend to discuss.  It is my opinion, that to leave religion to rest upon the voluntary efforts of the people, is a notion which we are not at present in a situation competent to entertain.  It is so very great a change, and so totally different from all that we know and observe, that we are absolutely precluded, from want of experience, from entering upon the consideration of the question.  It is not a just criterion, by which to form a judgment, to refer to the experience of other nations—­such as the existence of Christianity in Rome before it became the established religion of the empire, or the existence of religion in a country so distant and so unlike our own, in all its circumstances, as the United states of North America.  That, my lords, is the opinion I entertain, and therefore I will no longer occupy your lordships by any further discussion on this subject.  I belong to the church of England, and am a friend of that church, from feeling and from conviction.  I do not say that I have examined all her doctrines, or that I am master of all the grounds upon which her rites and ceremonies stand—­I do not say that I am able to discuss with my noble friend those one thousand questions, which Bishop Law said arose out of the thirty-nine articles, but I believe her doctrines to be scriptural, and I know her principles to be tolerant.  But, my lords, I beg leave to say, that I adopt those doctrines