ordinary occasions there were three quarters of a million more people at church on Sunday mornings in 1851 than in all the dissenting places of worship put together, we should probably not be overstating the case; and there would certainly be nothing in a state of things like that to account for any alteration in the public sentiment. When, however, we come to look at the statements made as to the relative _progress_ of the two bodies during the last half century our wonder at the change which has taken place in public opinion ceases. The following results, compiled from Tables 5 and 13 of Mr. Mann’s Report, will exhibit at a glance the amount of population and the number of sittings in 1801, as well as the subsequent increase at each decennial period since then:— Population. Church Dissenting Total Sittings. Sittings. Sittings. 1801 8,892,536 4,289,883 881,240 5,171,123 The subsequent increase was as follows:— 1811 1,271,720 24,305 328,720 353,225 1821 1,835,980 42,978 527,160 570,138 1831 1,896,561 124,525 788,080 912,605 1841 2,017,351 293,945 1,253,600 1,547,545 1851 2,013,461 542,079 1,115,848 1,657,927 Total 9,035,073 1,028,032 4,013,408 5,041,440 Increase Total 17,927,609 5,317,915 4,894,648 10,212,562 So that during the last ten years, while the Church was supposed to be making unheard-of exertions, the amount of new accommodation she really provided was not one-half of that supplied by the dissenting bodies! The Wesleyan sects alone provided no less than 630,498 sittings, against the 542,079 found by the Church! The case may be made yet more clear from the following table, which exhibits the number of sittings provided at each period for every thousand of the population:— Church. Dissent. Total. 1801 482 99 581 1811 424 120 544 1821 363 145 508 1831 323 181 504 1841 300 238 538 1851 297 273 570 So that while the Church has lost 185 sittings, Dissent has gained 174. In other words, the Church has experienced a total relative loss of 359 sittings per thousand of the population during the last 50 years. Even since 1831 her loss, as compared with Dissent, has not been less than 118 per thousand!