to government aid to their schools; and there were men uncharitable enough to say that many of the "influential of their number were looking for some provision similar to the Regium Donum bestowed upon the Presbyterians in Ireland. By what newspaper writers would call "a curious coincidence," the invitation to the Manchester meeting had been replied to by only one of the ministers of the Church of England the—Rev. Thomas Spencer and—but two of the ministers of the Church of Scotland. In addition to the objections sometimes made to the state payment of churches, may be named the mode of payment which, being regulated by the price of corn, gives to incumbents in those two establishments a direct interest in sustaining high prices. I leave my readers to judge how far that interest influenced their opinion upon the Corn Laws.
